Page 20 of Redeeming Captivity (Human Pets of Talin #7)
Chapter 20
Tarquin
A cold wave of fear swept through Tarquin at the standing general's words.
His first instinct was to give himself up to keep Lena safe. Common sense kept him in place. Jafinium couldn’t be trusted and would just as likely kill Lena as keep her. It was obvious he saw her as nothing but a status symbol, a rare item to show off his prestige. Such an item was easily discarded when it wasn’t convenient any longer.
“Tarquin! Reveal yourself!” Jafinium shouted. “If you don’t, I won’t kill her right away. I’ll start by cutting off—”
The sound of a large transport launching drowned out the rest of Jafinium’s words. It didn’t matter, the threat wasn’t original or surprising. Even if he wasn’t going to walk out there, he needed to act soon.
Reaching into his pouch, he drew out the charges. He had two left but needed to use them wisely. A few ground transports were still moving randomly around the port. He must’ve programmed in inconsistent directions and confused the onboard navigation system. The rock-walkers were only now starting to stand up and move. One of them walked right over the smoldering transport.
“I’m sure this is Tarquin’s fault,” Jafinium said, his angry words easy to hear now that the ship had launched.
None of the ground transports were close, but one of the rock-walkers was heading right for him. He waited until it was close and leaped, catching a rung on its belly. Swinging his legs up, he caught another rung with his feet. He was somewhat hidden by the panels that swung open to deploy the legs; hopefully that would be enough.
Lena’s scream made him almost let go. Rage swamped him and he almost abandoned his plan. Knowing Lena wasn’t likely to survive if he died was all that kept him clinging to the rock-walker.
The rock-walker progressed in an almost straight line toward Jafinium. Looking through a slit in the panel, he could see Jafinium. There was blood dripping from his mouth and he was turning in a tight circle, probably looking for Tarquin.
Lena was several strides away from Jafinium, being held by a soldier he didn’t recognize. It was hard to tell if any of the blood covering her was new. He swore he’d see every man here dead for what they’d done and allowed to be done to her.
Every. Single. One.
His rock-walker was getting close. He braced himself to fall to the ground and explode into action. He was only a few micromarks from letting go when he noticed the soldier holding Lena was looking right at him. Far from warning Jafinium, the soldier put his lips to Lena’s ear and whispered something.
She looked up and saw him, fear and hope warring for control of her expression. Her gaze dropped to Jafinium as his circle brought him within touching distance of one of the rock-walker’s legs. She started struggling in the soldier's hold, probably trying to get to Jafinium and help Tarquin.
The soldier started stepping away, putting distance between them and Jafinium. He was giving Tarquin room. Perhaps he wouldn’t kill everyone on the base. Maybe this male could live.
“This is an example of our failing empire,” Jafinium said, turning to face the retreating soldier holding Lena. “If I was—”
Tarquin let go with his legs and swung out, planting both feet in Jafinium's face and knocking the man to the ground. It was one of the most satisfying things Tarquin had ever done.
The rock-walker continued on as Tarquin stomped forward, ready to pound his fists through Jafinium’s face.
When he was about to kneel down, Jafinium moved. The man hadn’t become standing general by subterfuge, he was a skilled warrior and had the dagger Lena stole. Tarquin’s momentum meant even though he tried to stop, he wasn’t fast enough. The dagger hit him in the abdomen between plates, sinking in deep.
He felt a strange sensation but no pain. Without thinking he grabbed Jafinium’s arm so he couldn’t press the dagger in any further. Jafinium let go of the dagger and stepped back. He brought a leg up to kick Tarquin, probably hoping to drive the dagger deeper. Tarquin moved to catch the leg in one arm then swept the remaining leg, sending Jafinium to the ground.
Jafinium hit the ground and rolled, bouncing back to his feet and sounding a war rattle. Tarquin wished he could’ve followed Jafinium, but he was starting to feel the pain now radiating from the dagger still embedded in his flesh. He wasn’t sure if he should remove it or not. The interlocking ridges on the edge of Talin plates could be pushed together to keep blood from pouring out onto the ground. The problem was, if the dagger cut something vital inside him, the plates couldn’t stop him from bleeding into his abdomen.
He could be a walking corpse.
“I don’t have time to execute you in the old way,” Jafinium said, sounding a challenging rattle. “But this might be better. You die knowing you couldn’t defeat me in one-on-one combat. The ancestors can see you now, weak and beaten. This battle will haunt you in the afterlife.”
Jafinium came at him and Tarquin staggered back, the blade inhibiting his movements now. The pain was intense, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he had before passing out.
“You can barely stand,” Jafinium taunted.
Tarquin knew he couldn’t continue fighting, at best he only had one or two more moves in him. He dropped to one knee and hung his head as if exhausted.
When Jafinium was close enough, he lunged up, catching Jafinium in the belly with his shoulder and sending him stumbling. The intense pain from that move made his vision waiver.
Jafinium’s scream of pain told Tarquin his hasty plan worked. He’d managed to throw Jafinium into a rock-walker going by. He’d only hoped the rock-walker would knock him aside or something. The ancestors must’ve blessed him because Jafinium fell to the ground right under the rock-walker’s foot. The machine's weight drove the foot through Jafinium’s shoulder and into the ground under him. When the rock-walker picked its foot up to take another step, it pulled Jafinium up, forward, and down again. He hit the ground with another cry of pain.
Tarquin wished he could follow the rock-walker and finish Jafinium off, but he couldn’t get his legs to work.
“Dieseum help me!” Jafinium screamed as the rock-walker took another step and he disappeared behind some boulders. His cries for help slowly faded as the machine moved further away.
“By the ancestors, that didn’t go how I expected at all,” someone said with an amused rumble.
Tarquin looked up to see the soldier holding Lena standing over him. Lena was pushing at his arm and the soldier set her down. She dropped to her knees next to him, tears pouring out of her eyes even as her gaze focused on the dagger.
She looked up at the Talin. “Help!”
“What’s in it for me?” the soldier asked.
Lena looked like was about to pull the dagger out of him to stab the stranger. Tarquin put a calming hand on her shoulder and looked at the stranger.
“What do you want?”
“That’s an excellent question. I want nutri-packs to taste better. The end of slavery throughout the universe would be nice too. And maybe for Ossiso to smell better. Their musk is an assault on the nose.”
Tarquin blinked, confused. Was this male trying to be funny? Before he could figure out what to say next, the stranger spoke again.
“I’m Dieseum, not that my name is important at the moment, but I thought you’d like to know. As far as your question about what I want, at the moment I want both of you off this planet, but I’m not sure how I can do that.”
“Help coming,” Lena said, pointing to herself and Tarquin.
“Help as in someone is picking you up?” Dieseum clarified. Lena nodded and he sounded a rumble of affirmation. “Good, that makes my job easier. All I need to do is get you and this breathing-dagger-sheath to the pickup site.”
“Not funny!” Lena said with a glare.
“It was a little amusing,” Dieseum countered as he looked around. If he wasn’t the one with the dagger in him, Tarquin might think Dieseum was amusing also.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back,” Dieseum said, running to the closest rock-walker.
“Bad-bad?” Lena whispered, turning her attention back to him. He swept his gaze over her, looking for injuries. She looked tired and scared, but there was nothing obviously wrong.
He’d been silent too long because Lena leaned closer, putting her face directly in front of his. “Dying?”
He sounded a rumble of amusement then regretted it. “Not dying yet.”
She didn’t look comforted and pulled her pack off to start digging around. They only had the basic med kit, which wasn’t meant to handle anything as severe as this. To her credit, she didn’t try to use a skin patch on him. Instead she poured an entire container of nano-infused serialization water onto his wound. The nanos made the area around the wound bubble and he could feel them slipping inside it. As they worked, the area grew blessedly numb. When the bottle was empty, she tossed it to the side and pulled out a vial of blue liquid.
“Drink,” she commanded. He opened his mouth and accepted the analgesic. He recognized it as a powerful painkiller usually only used within the setting of a med bay or under the direct care of a healer.
“I fought in a war,” he commented, starting to feel like he’d drunk too much expensive wine. His thinking wasn’t clear and he had the strangest sensation of floating. “How did I get this wounded on a Talin base during a time of peace?”
Lena snorted. “Peace?” she repeated, her tone clearly mocking. “Ha!”
A rock-walker appeared from behind the comms building and headed straight for them. After what happened to Jafinium, the sight of the machine made Tarquin nervous.
“We should move,” he said, trying to get to his knees. Wait, when had he even laid down? He didn’t remember that.
It turned out that sitting up was impossible. When he tried, overwhelming pain forced him back down.
“This is bad,” he grumbled. He eyed the rock-walker, trying to gauge where the legs would come down. “When it gets close, you’ll need to move away,” he warned Lena.
“No.” Getting her legs under her, she grabbed hold of one his arms as if she was going to drag him out of the way.
“That’s not going to work,” he said. Despite his words, she tried anyway. He was impressed that she was able to move him a handspan before giving up. He was grateful she stopped. Even that small movement had sent a wave of agony through him. Now that he wasn’t moving, he was able to return to being mostly numb and floating.
Lena was saying something to him, but he was having a hard time hearing. She wanted him to do something? He couldn’t tell. Honestly, all he wanted to do was close his eyes.
Yes, closing his eyes sounded like an excellent idea!
“I’m fine,” he whispered, letting his eyes drop shut. He heard one of the rock-walker’s legs stamp into a bit of ground only a stride away from his head, but he couldn't bring himself to be bothered about it. “I’m going to rest for a moment, then I’ll carry you to our pickup spot. It’ll all be….”