Page 44 of Protected by the Alien Warrior Triad

The soldiers murmur with the guards in their foreign language. They talk loudly. I know their type – the blustering kind of coward who is gripped by fear, yet tries to hide it behind loud noises and boastful words.

They manage to hide nothing. In fact, I can see more clearly than even they can. None of these humans know how close they could be to death if I, or Hadone or Darok, willed it so.

It’s so tempting. Iknowthat I could leap, and kick, and crush windpipes and snap necks even with my hands cuffed. Just as we are right now, Imightget out alive...

…but then what?

Where would I lead my triad then? This culture has resources. They have some sort of flying beast, that moves them like the dragons that used to haunt my home planet. They have weapons that can kill you from afar.

We might escape right now – but I would be leading my battle-brothers into a hostile world that I do not know; and every step we take would lead us further away from the woman that I must protect.

“We wait. We wait for our chance,”I telepath, and instantly Darok and Hadone uncoil their muscles. They were just as ready to strike as I was, and had been waiting for the signal to turn these cramped quarters into a bloodbath.

Instead, we conceal our deadly potential, and march obediently down the hallway past jail cells with bars at the door.

Within them, human prisoners cower, pressing themselves as far away from the bars as possible. It’s ironic – they’re more scared of us than they are of the humans who keep them imprisoned here. What is it that makes these humans fear and loathe our kind so much?

I’m pointed towards a cell with the pointy-end of one of those lethal weapons, and reluctantly I duck inside. Darok and Hadone are pushed into their own cells nearby – close, but not adjacent to mine. Somehow, I know that these humans understand how my triad can communicate with each other telepathically. Otherwise, they’d have put us in cells too far away from each other to talk vocally.

I file that information away. Clearly, these humans have some knowledge of Aurelian physiology. Knowing what your enemy knows – and using it to understand the way your enemythinks– is a vital tactic for success.

Fear is the key. These humans fear me. They fear us. Even the servants. Fear will be my weapon – stronger even than my fists or my blades.