Chapter 11
“Get up! We have supplies!”
I startle awake to Thor’s voice and presence as the big, blond man comes lumbering into our cave, barely able to fit as it is, and having to work several recovered supplies in ahead of him and behind him.
I am so excited to see him, and I am even more happy to see that he got stuff. So much stuff. He must have carried loads of things strapped to his back and shoulders.
“Breakfast,” he says, handing me a chocolate fudge ration bar.
“You are a god, and I love you,” I say, responding in the only appropriate manner to such an offering.
“Don’t worry about rationing or sharing that. I want to see you eat the whole thing,” he says as I open it and start to break a piece off.
“Really?”
“There’s enough for everyone. I have a couple of cases of rations. We can save some of them for rainy days, but right now I want you nourished properly.”
I take a bite of the chocolate fudge, and I start to cry.
The act of eating food feels the same as the fact of being loved. It’s all so overwhelming, it tastes so good, and all the happy chemicals racing through my brain are telling me that I am being deeply cared for and that is triggering a rush of emotion I cannot control.
“Hey, baby, are you okay? Are you hurt? Is it bad?” Thor is instantly concerned for me.
“I’m good. I’m just happy,” I say. “I’m so good. This tastes so good.”
“Oh. Good,” he says, confused, but otherwise unbothered now.
“I got other things as well,” he says. “Some more clothing, some weapons, batteries, lights, and most important. This.”
He pulls out a smooth round white box with a couple of knobs on it.
“What’s that?”
“An interstellar radio,” he grins. “I’ve already sent out a distress call. And I activated every transponder I could find. They might have scanned the planet already and assumed nobody survived, but they won’t think that now. They know someone is down here.”
I squeak with excitement. As I do, I look out the corner of my eye at Drako, seeing how he takes that news. I know Thor wants to capture him, but I don’t think that’s how it’s going to go down. Drako does not look worried at all.
That’s interesting. Maybe he doesn’t believe rescue is coming, but Thor is so certain, I am inclined to believe him.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Drako says. “You have done well to get so much, but the chance of being rescued is unfathomably low…”
Just as he says that, the radio makes a beeping sound. All three of us jump a little in response.
“What is that? Does it usually do that?”
Thor grins as the radio crackles into life.
“Expedition survivor, identify yourself.”
Thor picks up the unit and speaks into it. “Thor Falkbeck,” he says. “I am here with two others.”
“Identify the two others.”
We both stare at him. He clears his throat. “Maybe I should take this outside,” he says.
“Oh, no. Do it here,” Drako says. “Let us hear how you describe us.”
“I have Selene Weltheim,” he says. “She was a stowaway on the ship. We also have Jarl Drako of the Vikar with us.”
There’s more crackling and general static.
The person on the other end of the line does not sound that enthused.
I am sure it is just a military sort of bearing thing.
They don’t want to sound excited. But my head is spinning.
Are we really about to be rescued? Was it that easy?
It feels like it shouldn’t be that easy.
But also, why would it be hard? It’s not like it’s standard procedure to abandon crash survivors.
Drako said it was, but that’s because he comes from a much more brutal culture than we do.
I bet he’s seeing some advantages to civilization now.
“Survivors, we will be at your position tomorrow at the zenith of the sun, midday. Be prepared to be taken off-world. Over.”
“Over what?”
“That’s the sign-off,” Thor says as the radio falls silent. “It means that they’re done talking to us. Tomorrow, they will be here.”
“How are they going to land on the side of a mountain?”
“My bet is they send down a small armed vessel,” he says.
I look over at Drako. He is sitting with his back against the wall, one leg outstretched in front of him, the other lifted so his knee is up.
He’s also having a ration bar. Apricot yogurt.
I don’t know why anybody would bother with that when there is chocolate to be had.
And then it hits me. He saw how much I like the chocolate, and he is leaving it for me.
“We can’t leave Drako behind,” I say, tears stinging my eyes. “But we can’t take him either, because they’ll hang him for his crimes.”
“Alleged crimes,” Drako grins, not giving a semblance of a damn.
I know why Thor is happy. He thinks this is all going to be over in a matter of hours.
Our ordeal on this wild, awful, deadly planet is going to be over.
We’re going to go back to a planet where you can walk into a shop and buy a pie.
That’s a big deal to him, and to me, I guess, seeing as that’s the first thing I thought of.
“You’ll have a fair trial,” Thor promises him.
“Oh, my gods, shut up. Do we really have to tell them that he was responsible for the crash?” I exclaim.
Thor looks at me like my head just spun around three hundred and sixty degrees on my shoulders. I’ve horrified him.
“A thousand people died,” he says.
“Nine-hundred and ninety-eight, technically,” I say, making a joke he does not find funny.
“You’ve gotten into her head,” he says to Drako.
“It’s not her head I’m in,” Drako smirks. “At least, not solely.”
Thor shuts his mouth and his jaw tightens. I can see the muscle ticking. He’s mad. He is definitely going to see Drako hang for this. And he’s going to try to keep me for his own. I can see it all already. There’s not going to be one prisoner on that ship going home. There will be two.
The day goes so much faster than I want it to.
I keep begging for time to slow down, let us enjoy the beauty of the place we are probably never going to see again.
Now that I know I am to be rescued, this world seems unfathomably beautiful, all the way down to the sleeping horde of horrific nightmare creatures still slumbering beneath our hideout.
“Stay close,” Thor instructs me. “The last thing I need is you wandering off just as rescue arrives.”
“What if Drako runs?”
I immediately feel guilty, because I can tell that Thor wasn’t really thinking about that. His brow furrows as he considers that as an option.
“Don’t start with me, Golden Boy,” Drako drawls.
“If you run, we will hunt you.”
“Good luck with that. If I run, you will be eaten by something far better at hunting than you are. And this time I won’t save you from your cowardice.”
Drako hits that nerve in Thor without a moment’s hesitation. I know that incident with the troll in the mountains is a source of shame for him, and I know he went to the ship in part to make up for it. And he has. He’s gotten us rescued! But Drako’s barb hits deep and true.
Thor leaps on Drako, which is stupid, but they don’t care.
Two big men fighting in a small cave is a recipe for disaster.
It is all I can do to try to get out of the way as they tumble around like a pair of fighting lions.
Golden hair flashes, then dark, tattooed flesh and then muscular clean lines.
He did not just bring back chocolate fudge and a radio from the crash. He brought a pair of handcuffs.
The pair of them wrangle around wrestling in a rough and tumble, fighting for dominance. Drako is probably fighting for his life, because if he gets put on our ship, they’re going to try to blame him for everything. Mostly because he did it, but still.
I know I am being disloyal to the crew, but I strongly feel as though he has made some amends since he gave the order to shoot at our ship. I don’t know that he intended for almost everyone on the ship to die, and I don’t… fuck, I know I am rationalizing something that can’t be rationalized.
By some act of amazing strength, and fighting prowess, Thor is the one who bests Drako.
He snaps the cuffs on one wrist, then wrests the other arm behind Drako’s back and clicks them closed.
He stands up, panting and sweating heavily, running his hand through his tangled blond mane as he looks down at his vanquished foe.
“You’re going to answer for your crimes,” he says.
“Am I,” Drako drawls, rolling over and sitting up, crossing his legs in an almost casual way. “We’ll see, Golden Boy.”
“Another word out of you, and I’m going to gag you,” Thor says. “I’m not interested in being baited until we are rescued. I might gag you anyway. You may as well get used to being captive.”
He walks outside. I stay where I am, crouched in the corner of the cave.
“You will be in chains too, soon enough,” Drako says.
He’s not wrong. I am not responsible for the deaths of an entire crew, but I was a stowaway on a ship, and that’s a crime.
I am in trouble. Just not as much trouble as he is in.
They’re going to kill him. They’re going to take him to the square in the middle of Weltheim and they’re going to execute him. It’s not going to be pretty.
There aren’t a lot of executions anymore. When you have chewing gum and electronic mail, public executions stop feeling contemporary. But I have a feeling they’re going to bring the old ways back for this. It’s going to be a brutal, bloody spectacle, and we all know it.
“I’m going to let you go,” I say. “I’m going to get the key, and I’m going to make sure you can run.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Drako says. “You’re sweet, but there’s no need to be concerned. I can take care of myself.”
He’s being stupid and male about this. He doesn’t want to acknowledge how vulnerable he is, so he’s concocting some kind of fantasy where he doesn’t need help escaping Vikar justice.
“Survivors. Prepare for extraction.”