Chapter 53
DALOX
The two females are quiet as we rise up to my sector. The doors open, and as I have requested, there is a cohort waiting.
“I have found females,” I growl at them. “Any warrior who does not keep his eyes front at all times will lose them. Understand?”
Every single pair of eyes snaps to the front. “Understood, Lord Dalox,” they reply.
We move swiftly through my sector to the neutral zone. On entering, there is a series of explosions, and the females partially shift to their Sarkarnii forms.
“Do not be concerned,” I advise them. “It is the warlord, Dante, testing his weaponry.”
“Of course it is,” the taller of the two female says.
“Males,” the shorter one hisses. “They never change.”
If I thought our warriors would have a difficult time avoiding envenomation, I am certain of it now. With my guard cohort ahead of us, I escort the females through the neutral sector to the clan hall. The area in front of it is, thankfully, free of any other Sarkarnii.
“Wait here for me,” I tell my guards. “Let no one in but the warlords.”
“Yes, Lord Dalox.”
The two females follow me into the hall. I remain ahead of them, ready to deal with any new males, but the individual guard rooms are empty, so I am able to take my charges through to the main chamber, and I place them both in an anteroom as I wait.
Dexx is the first to arrive. He glowers at me for a moment before scenting the air.
“Where is your mate?” he asks.
“Do you bring your mate to every clan meeting?” I growl back.
“My mate has birthed in the last nova-day,” he snaps.
“She has less of a wish to be here than I, and I only have the slightest of desires to find out why you’ve called yet another meeting.
” He flings himself down in the pit area, his tail curling around his ankles as he huffs a great cloud of smoke.
Darax is next through the door, and he’s heading straight for me, until he thinks better of it.
“You…” he snarls. “Where is my ship? What’s nevving going on?”
“I suspect Dalox has brought us here to explain,” Dexx drawls.
“Your ship is destroyed,” I tell Darax.
I watch his fists curl and uncurl. Not that it will be a great a loss to a warlord as wealthy as he.
“I needed that ship,” he says.
“I have no doubt you can procure another one.”
Darax lifts his lips, revealing his fangs as Driok enters.
“Whose ship did you arrive in?” he asks. “And where is it?”
“I have the answers you seek, once Dante gets here,” I tell him.
“I hope one of those answers is how you’re going to replace my ship, Dalox,” Darax growls.
“Dante is busy blowing up parts of the neutral sector. I doubt he’ll be here any time soon,” Dexx says. “Just tell us why you called this meeting and we can go.”
Everyone looks to the door as Dante enters, his scales smoldering slightly and the stench of star fuel clinging to him.
“I have some news about the second continent.”
“It’s not filled with wet, hot jungle after all?” Darax snarls. “But instead littered with the parts of my ship you stole.”
“Like you didn’t steal it first.” Driok laughs.
“I purchased it,” Darax fires back. “It cost me many credits.”
“Just steal another one and be done, you nevver,” Dexx says. “Let Dalox get on with it.”
“I located Deus’s ship.” I gaze at Darax.
His gaze darkens.
“My brother,” he says. “Did you find him?”
“I found him, and I found something else too.” I open the door to the anteroom and beckon the two females out.
“Sarkarnii females?” Driok contorts himself into the strangest of shapes in order to see past me.
Dexx is on his feet. Even Dante has sobered as the two females stand before them.
“They survived the sickness?” Darax says.
“Not only these two females, but many more. Deus’s crew was mostly female,” I reply.
“Everyone wanted to serve on his ship, but he preferred female crew.” Darax is unable to take his eyes from the first Sarkarnii females any of them have seen since the sickness took the rest. “He said they were efficient and deadly, the two qualities he held above everything else in a warrior.”
“I want females for my crew,” Dexx growls.
“That’s why we’re here,” the taller female says.
“I am Dyris, this is Dyoti. As Dalox says, we are many but not enough for all your males. We want to be part of your settlement, not cause conflict.” She looks at Dyoti, who inclines her head slightly.
“Our leader wanted us to be breeders, but it’s not what we want.
We want to be part of a functioning Sarkarnii crew again.
” She looks around at all the warlords. “We want to be free.”
“Of course you do,” a female voice snarls from the back of the room. “Because you are weak, Dyris. You always were.”
Dyana stands in the doorway, a pulsar disruptor in one hand and the other behind her back.
“No one move,” she says, glaring around at the warlords.
Dexx chuckles darkly.
“Did you bring this one too?” he asks. “She doesn’t seem too happy about it.”
I stare at the disruptor.
“You’re among Sarkarnii warlords, Dyana.” I flash my fangs. “Your weapons mean nothing here. Your ideology means nothing here. All my warlords are mated.”
“Oh,” Dyana says, pressing the disruptor, dangerously, to her lips. “I will have to just give up.” She shrugs. “After all, if this room is filled with mated warlords, where does that leave little old me?”
She jerks her arm out and, on the end, hand encircling her throat, is Gillian. She clutches at the tight fingers, claws digging into her flesh, her eyes wide.
“I think it leaves me exactly where I want to be,” Dyana says. “I think you’ll give me whatever I want.”