Page 31 of Einar (The Brigands of Ruk #2)
Chapter Thirty-One
EINAR
Rowan’s frowning face is adorable. Not that I am stupid enough to make such a comment aloud. That she feels safe enough to express any sort of negative emotion is telling. She may not trust me consciously but the heartbond is working on her at a subconscious level, letting her know that I truly mean her no harm.
She huffs and folds her arms across her chest as she glares at the screen in front of us. Stifling my laughter, I check the screens just in time to see Slavic pull a flush faced Ruby from the helm room toward the maintenance air lock. When he starts pulling suits from the nook where they are kept, I know what is going to happen next so I avert my eyes.
“ Unless you wish to get a full visual of my oldest brother in the nude, I suggest you avert your eyes for some time.”
Rowan squeals, spins on my medical stool, and covers her eyes all at the same time.
“ Eww , gross! He’s basically my brother now, I do not wish to see his dick!”
Her words catch me off guard with how formal they are compared to how Ruby speaks, which in turn, sparks my insatiable curiosity. “ Little Rowan , I have a question, if you would permit me?”
“ Uhm …alright.”
“ Why is it that you speak so differently from Ruby ? I know you are sisters and normally siblings raised in the same dwelling have the same syntax when they speak.”
My question makes her face fall, and the brief moment of levity disappears as if it never happened. Concern fills me that so simple a question could cause such a reaction.
“ Robert … the man I married on Earth , was a high-ranking politician where we lived. I’ve never been sure why he picked me out of all the women he had to choose from, but unfortunately for me, he did. When I met him, I sounded just like Ruby . However , after we were formally engaged, he started in on how I would embarrass him at his functions because I sounded like a ‘backwoods hillbilly,’ so he forced me to take formal etiquette lessons until I sounded as polished as any upper-class lady. Anytime I slipped up the repercussions were… unpleasant, so now it’s habit to speak the way I do. I’m not sure I could revert back to speaking the way Ruby does even if I wanted to.”
Her explanation makes her so forlorn that it sends a pang through our heartbond, but I refuse to rub my chest. She is far too perceptive, and it would only cause her more misplaced guilt, but it does provide me with an opening to tell her a little about myself.
“ I was not abused by a mate, but I do understand being forced to do things against ones will. If you wish to listen, I will tell you why I am different from my brothers.”
Relief fills me when she nods her agreement, and drops her hands from her face, looking up at me expectantly. Glancing back at the screen, I get a glimpse of pale flesh before I jerk away with a shudder. Rowan must have seen what I did because she snickers at my expense.
“ Did you see something you can’t unsee?”
“ Almost , little one. It was very close.”
Leaning back against the console, Rowan and I both face away from the screen as I start my story from the beginning.
“ I am the middle offspring born of my life givers. Slavic is the oldest, then Ruarc , myself, Falon , Bikar , and finally Murgul . With the exception of Slavic who was born on our home world of Uzrul , we were all born on a planet called Viri 9. An insidious race called the Aynar came to Uzrul under the guise of saviors. They would help my life giver’s generation provide a better life for their younglings, in exchange for my people working for them. From what I was told, and later educated about, Uzrul was a harsh environment, and every day was a struggle to survive. That is why the Aynar’s offer was so tempting, but everything those fracking fairies said was a lie.”
“ Fairies ?”
“ Yes , some call them that because to most they appear as such. Delicate , fragile, ethereally beautiful, but it is all a facade. What lies beneath is far more insidious. Their true forms are born from nightmares, with solid black eyes, leathery wings, and layers of razor-sharp teeth.”
Memories bombard me, taking my breath away. It has taken me many orbital rotations to lock these recollections behind a steel wall in my mind. A tentative touch on my hand pulls me back into the here and now.
Rowan has reached out with one of her tiny hands and is holding as much of my hand as she can grasp. That my mate, who has been abused by everyone except her sister, offers to comfort me? Well , it melts my hearts. Her pale skin contrasts with my green hide, and I see her face furrow in confusion when she feels the scales that blend perfectly with my skin.
“ What you are feeling is part of the story as well. As I said, Slavic was the only one of my brothers born on Uzrul , and as such, he is the only pure bred Rukuhk among us. The rest of us have been… augmented in one way or another. Mam was pregnant with Ruarc when they left for Viri 9, and all was well in the beginning. However , slowly but surely the Aynar began pushing our sire and his workdays became longer, and his time spent in the dwelling less frequent. They were testing the heartbonds to see how long it took for a mated pair to start experiencing separation sickness.
Mam collapsed and a young Slavic rushed her to the infirmary. That is where it began. The Aynar were experimenting on all the younglings while they were still within their mam’s wombs by splicing our DNA with that of other species. Some extinct, some not. In mine, Bikar’s and Murgul’s case, the DNA they spliced us with is from a long dead, reptilian species. The Aynar’s goal was to create the perfect worker and warrior; one that did not tire easily and was difficult to harm. And since my species is hardy, strong, and experiences high birth rates, we were the perfect species to test their experiments out on. Sire was allowed to come home long enough to impregnate mam before his workload would miraculously double. By the time Murgul was born, it was blatantly apparent that the Aynar had been meddling in things they ought not.
Slavic was thrown into the mines when he refused to take a less experienced warrior’s life. That was the last time I saw him for orbital rotations. Slavic’s refusal to kill an innocent, and his consequential punishment was the day the Aynar revealed themselves for the evil frackers they are. Ruarc , being the second oldest, was left in the dwelling with mam, Bikar and Murgul while they were still younglings. Later , Ruarc was sent to the mines to join sire and Slavic . Falon and I were forcibly removed from our home to begin our specialty training. I was sent to medical and Falon engineering. When Bikar and Murgul were old enough, they too were sent off, but Bikar went into communications and when Murgul showed promise for weapons design that is where he was assigned. Later I found out that our sire pulled in every single favor he had left to make sure we were all selected for different training assignments. He was planning long term.”
Rowan interjects with a gentle question.
“ You and your brothers are so big. How did a race that looks like an evil fairy control you?”
“ Ah , yes. You see, all the younglings they altered could be controlled by the Aynar’s mages. A simple thought in our direction dropped us to the ground in mind numbing pain. They engineered us to serve, regardless whether we agreed with what we were being forced to do or not. That is how they controlled us, and if that did not provide the desired result, they would threaten our mams or siblings to encourage cooperation. Orbital rotations went by before I saw one of my brothers again, and I almost did not recognize him for who he was when I did.
Slavic had been caught in a cave-in deep in the mine, but our sire was able to get him to my infirmary for care. You would not know it now, but Slavic had hair similar to my own, and dark green skin versus his current bald, gray skinned appearance. The environment in the mine was extremely hostile. While I worked on him, we exchanged as much information as possible. I told him where the rest of our brothers were, how Sire maneuvered us into varying training programs, how mam was taken to their main laboratory, and that none of us knew where she was.”
“ How … how did you escape?”
Rowan’s broken question pulls me from my memories; her hand is clinging to mine, and I brush my thumb across hers in reassurance.
“ The simple answer is our sire. Remember I mentioned he was planning for the long term? Well , he spearheaded a revolt against the Aynar . A secret rebellion to save our people, his family, and most importantly his mate from the evil frackers. He manipulated it so a ship would be waiting in the loading bay at the mine. Normally the workers just hauled the onyx up to the bay and put it in containers that would later be loaded onto ships via auto bots. This was so there was never a ship in the loading bay at the same time as a Rukuhk . Sire sent Murgul , Falon , and myself a message through a few Ruks he trusted, that when we heard the explosion to be ready to move, and head to the loading bay.
The explosion, when it came, was significant and could not be missed. Sire blew up the entire fracking mine and it rattled the Aynar enough that there was pandemonium. I was able to make it to the ship without resistance as did Falon and Murgul . We were standing in the cargo bay, waiting for our life givers, Ruarc and Slavic to join us when we heard something hit the ramp just before Slavic appeared with a wounded Ruarc . Slavic laid Ruarc on the floor, turned and bolted right back down the ramp. The three of us followed him only to be hit with wave upon wave of unrelenting pain. Through the pain, I watched sire fight with several Pyrkyne guards before Slavic was able to him to help.
Somehow , one of the Aynar mages figured out what sire was up to, and he brought mam with him to the loading bay to dangle her in front of us. Sire and Slavic froze. Sire bellowed, ‘‘ Slavic , save your brothers, get to the ship now, and do not make our sacrifice be in vain, Son .’
Everything that happened after that was a blur. Slavic barreled up the ramp, dragging myself, Murgul , and Falon back into the ship. Once we were out of the mage’s line of sight, his hold on us broke, but we were all weak due to the torture. Slavic watched that evil fracker slit our mam’s throat and when sire stumbled, the death of his mate such a shock he could not move, Pyrkyne guards overwhelmed him and murdered him on the spot. Somehow , I managed to hit the control to close the ramp before Slavic could leave the safety of the ship. It took all of us to hold him down in his grief and I ended up having to sedate him for many risings before he was able to control himself.
He is the one who figured out a way to survive. We may be brigands, but we have never harmed the innocent because we know how it feels to be the guiltless. We all know what it is like to be controlled, manipulated and violated.”
I watch as Rowan’s eyes flared at the comparison. Her eyes are glassy with unshed tears. She sniffles before getting up from the stool and moving around in front of me. This is the closest she has allowed me to be to her since she awoke and just her company is a balm to my tortured soul.
To my dismay, she lets go of my hand before shocking me completely with a hug. The top of her head only reaches my sternum, and our size differences hit me anew. Her slight form is trembling, and I do not know if it is due to my story, her fear of males or a combination therein. Cautiously , I lower my arms, giving her plenty of time to back away before I lightly wrap my arms around her, hugging her in return. Her voice is muffled where it is buried in my chest.
“ I am so, so sorry, Einar . I don’t have the words to tell you how sorry I am for all that you’ve suffered.”
“ Thank you, little Starshine . I would endure it all again.”
My heartfelt words cause her to jerk her face away from where it’s pressed against my chest to shoot an incredulous look up at me, and I see that her tears fell as she embraced me.
“ Do not look at me so. I would do it all again, and I will tell you why. It is because all those events led me to you.”
Shock makes her jaw drop in astonishment before her brows crease. Ignoring her ire, I carefully pull her back to me.
“ Come now, let me hold you for a moment longer before we are needed elsewhere.”
She grumbles a bit, but I take it as a resounding win when she settles back against my chest and lets me hold her.