Page 22
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A Hymn Of Defiance
RIV
T he silver-haired Rider loomed over élisa as they tangled on his bed.
His body glowed from the starlight flooding the chamber from the constellations outside the plex window.
As she twisted in abandon under him, he moved away from lapping on her pebbled nipples and lowered his mouth between her legs, hovering over her heated folds.
He parted them and dived in, licking and sucking her clit as she writhed under him.
‘I’m going to rock you in a cosmic love experience until you can’t take any more,’ he growled against her slick skin.
She had no words to offer, just soft pants and mewls as he licked at her core, enticing her with his tongue. He suckled her tiny pleasure bud, his lips wrapping around it.
His hot, wet tip flicked at her, sending a wave of bliss through her.
‘Ah, Riv!’ élisa gasped, thrusting her hips forward, her fingers clutching at his silver mane.
Her head thumped back against the headboard. Her hands dug into his scalp, holding him to her. A moan escaped her lips, and she pushed herself into his face. He teased her even more, swirling her nub.
élisa’s breathing became shallow. Riv’s ministrations had her body tingling, her clit aching. Riv lifted his face from her crotch. He looked into her face, flushed with pleasure, her lilac eyes sparkling in sensual invitation.
‘I want to be inside you.’ His rasp raked over her skin, tightening her nipples.
élisa’s heart leapt at his words, and she beckoned to him.
Rising over her, he positioned himself between her legs, his cock pressing, eager to slide in.
élisa let her thighs fall open, her hands going to his hips. He stroked his steel hard knob over her opening, teasing her.
She whimpered. ‘Riv -’
His lips turned up as he gave in to mercy, taking his time as he slid into her, his pulsating hardness filling her.
She gasped. ‘My love, that feels so good.’
He leaned in, kissing her.
élisa wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him to her. She could feel his heart beating, his cock throbbing inside her. The most righteous sensation in the entire universe, she thought, losing herself to its pleasure.
Riv held her, his powerful thighs working, driving, thrusting.
He pulled out of her, his shaft slick, then slid back into her, filling her, charging her insides with fire and waves of heat.
He rocked back and forth, driving in and out of her, his rod moving in and out of her core.
He buried his face into her nape, where he found the root of one of her koya .
He gave it a lick, and élisa gasped, her hips trying to keep up as she clutched onto him, her arms shaking, her body quivering.
‘Baby, I’m going to come.’
Her breath hitched, her pussy spasming around him.
‘Woman, come for me,’ moaning as he thrust into her, his tongue working her neck and koya .
‘Oh, Riv.’ Her hips surged, and she squeezed his firm ass cheeks, aiding his driving force as waves of pleasure washed through her.
He rammed into her, his arms enfolding her. His lips pressed into her nape, kissing her, sucking her. His heart beat against her.
He impaled her, his hardness moving deep.
élisa exhaled, her waist moving in wild abandon.
Riv’s thighs propelled them, moving faster in and out of her.
He held her, his mouth against her neck, then exploded with a roar, his entire core shuddering, his pelvis plunged faster, harder, rocking, pushing deeper into her.
She jerked as she came again, her body spasming out of control.
Riv kept lunging into her as she crested until her eventual descent from her righteous high.
He stayed inside her, his weight on her, breathing ragged as he gasped for air.
Caressing his face, she ran her lips across his cheek. ‘I adore you with all my soul, Sableman.’
She slipped her hands into his hair, holding him to her.
‘I love you, too, silver angel.’ He kissed her, his tongue sliding into her mouth.
She gave him back some of the same beauty, and together, they rocked each other until they both faded into the embrace of sweet, sated sleep.
Riv knifed up from sleep to the sound of deafening klaxons.
He rose from his bed as his woman sat up, a dazed look on her face, her lengthy mane falling all over her body in a silver waterfall.
‘Mirage, an update, please.’
‘The Katánians are here. Two hours from orbit, and they’re racing hard and fast towards us.’
Riv grunted. ‘Any good news?’
‘Kainan arrived about an hour ago. His fleet is hiding behind Devansi’s moon, waiting on our signal.’
Riv jerked. ‘Why didn’t you wake us?’
Mirage chuckled. ‘Hold your horses, Rider. He said not to, claiming the more sleep you all got, the better. You’d only have woken to worry. He insisted, and if you’ve any issues, take it up with him. He’s the khosi .’
Riv huffed as he pulled on his meta suit. ‘Everyone else on the ready?’
‘Zane is already at the helm; his uncanny sense woke him up hours ago. So is Killen. Y’know what they say about peas in a pod.’
Riv laughed, exchanging a look with élisa. She, too, was pulling on a Sable issue suit with all the bells and whistles.
Once she’d tugged it on, she turned to braiding her lengthy hair. Her fingers flew as she tidied up her long locks and twisted the cord into a tidy bun.
Mirage continued with an update on the key crew. ‘Xion is still snoring even though I’ve comm’d him twice, and alarms are on the go.’
‘Typical. Use the cold blast of icy air method. That always works.’
‘Ki’Remi is walking out of his suit right now and heading to med bay, ready for emergencies.’
‘Let Zane know we’ll be there soon.’
Minutes later, Riv charged into the command centre with élisa by his side.
‘What’s the play?’ he muttered as he approached Zane.
‘Take a look, brother. This is no rehearsal.’
The viewscreen showed a fleet of ships bearing down on them. The crafts were colossal, configured like gigantic birds with spread-out wings.
Zane leaned into the view. ‘It’s the first wave. They’re armed and tracking in hard.’
Mirage interjected. ‘Hold up, they’re slowing.’
While the Riders kept their eyes on the screen, the convoy decelerated, and several smaller boats, shaped like sleek raptors, separated from the larger ones, and they flew towards them, coming to a stop before the Phantasm.
‘élisa, any insight you can give us?’ Zane twisted around to face her.
The Katánian woman breathed, her koya sāb?rs bristling against her chest. ‘They’ll only ask once, then engage with little provocation. My people are fierce and unrelenting, and it’s rare that they indulge in small talk. So get to the heart of what they want and do it quickly.’
The sapphire-eyed Rider gave élisa a nod. ‘Grateful.’
‘Is diplomacy on the cards?’ Xion asked with a lift of his chin.
Zane shrugged. ‘Let’s find out. Mirage, send Kainan a message. He needs to launch a surprise attack and flank us to the rear of these kinais once they start firing.’
He turned to Riv and élisa. ‘Please wait in the ready room; we don’t want the Katánians to know you are on this ship with us. You, too, Killen. We’ll enable a feed there so you can hear the conversation. But they cannot know your existence. Not yet.’
Riv ushered his family into the expansive room beside the bridge and ensured the door was secure.
He flicked on the holo screen, and the feed flickered through.
Go ahead, brother, he said to Zane via their neural network.
Zane nodded. ‘Now, let’s try the good, old talk-the-enemy-down-from-a-cliff-jump method. Open a channel, Mirage.’
‘Done.’
Zane stepped to the viewscreen, hands folded behind him, his face an expressionless visage. ‘To the incoming Katánian fleet. We are a peaceful Edenite ship on a mercy mission and mean no harm to our brothers and sisters on Devansi. What business have you here?’
The screen flickered to an incoming feed, and a Katánian appeared.
He sported a craggy, lean, brutal human face and hawk-like feathers in a stunning crest around his face.
The effect, intended to inflict fear, was startling. Their gold glowing eyes glared at Zane. ‘I speak on behalf of the Tempest of Light, the Kíríga and King of Katánē. Devansi has long harbored his heir, the Kinti of Katánē, and demands that they return her to him. Do you speak for the Devansi?’
‘In a manner of speaking, given they’ve no defensive fleet of their own.’
‘You know of whom we seek?’
‘We might,’ Zane hedged.
The Katánian leaned in, his eyes cold and unyielding. ‘Tell the Devansi to hand her over to us.’
‘I’ll do no such thing,’ Zane drawled, his lip curling with amusement.
The crested spokesperson sneered. ‘Should you stand in our way and stop us from retrieving her, we will engage and fire on the planet.’
Zane took his time, pursing his mouth as if mulling over a response.
The Katánian frowned. ‘Were my nibs not making a noise when I spoke?’
Zane swung a hand about in nonchalance. ‘They flapped, that was for sure.’
The resulting snarl was what he’d been expecting, and his lips curled with an arctic smile at his mastery in ruffling the Katánian’s fine feathers. ‘What if she doesn’t want to come with you?’
‘We will rain down arms on this tiny planetoid until we find her.’
Zane smirked. ‘An attack on Devansi will not be tolerated.’
‘Your refusal of the Tempest of Light’s wishes will not be sanctioned.’
The holo screen went dark.
Mirage stared down at their controls. ‘They’ve cut the channel and are powering weapons.’
‘They’re turning on their defenses, too. They’re going to fire,’ Xion looked up from his station, flicking the battle scene onto the central holo for all to see.
‘Battle stations,’ Zane grated. ‘Shields up.’
‘Arms away,’ Mirage announced as flashes rushed at them from the Katánians’ initial rail gun volley.
‘Let it rip, Mirage.’
Thousands of metanoid projectiles poured out like a stream from the Phantasm. They screeched from the cruiser’s state-of-the-art hypersonic missile tubes and mounted torpedoes at supersonic speeds.
In milliseconds, they hit pay dirt.
Explosions bloomed as the Katánian’s bombardment met the noid-powered weapons and exploded into a roiling combustion of white-hot heat.
More metanoid missiles parsed through the clouds of explosions, aiming for the Katánian ships.
The enemy’s raptors tore through the explosive bloom and winged through the air towards the single Edenite ship, sending volleys of missiles ahead.
‘Never seen projectiles track that fokkin ’ fast,’ Zane murmured. ‘They’re quicker than ours.’
Mirage demurred. ‘They might have speed on their side, but we have a ‘noid payload. We may have to take a few hits before we can land any of our weapons. However, it’ll be over for our Katánian friends by the time we do.’
The enemy’s weapons roared towards the large ship. Mirage maneuvered it to its broadside, so the projectiles missed any core sections, instead impacting the Phantasm’s lower hull.
‘Mirage report,’ Zane commanded as the ship shuddered under his feet.
‘Hull breach on Levels 4 and 5, but its decks were cleared with the earlier alerts. No one has been harmed, and there’s some damage, but not much. Airlock doors have been activated to seal off those sections of the ship.’
‘Have you hit them already?’ Zane rasped.
‘Firing now, as they’re regrouping.’ Mirage sent out a shower of rail gun missiles laced with metanoids.
‘In the ready room, Riv leaned over to Killen and élisa. ‘The metanoid storm will work its way into each ship. Their encoders are spreading malware as we speak, leading to eventual failure or engine self-termination in milliseconds.’
It didn’t take long before the raptors shrieking towards the Phantasm faltered mid-air, oscillating in drunken circles as they wheeled through space.
The Katánian’s lead craft fell victim to the Sable Riders’ attack. Lights all over the vast battleship flashed off and on. Small explosions bloomed all over the surface of the vessel.
‘Status?’ Zane called out.
‘I’m reading multiple system failures throughout their ships,’ Mirage replied. ‘Their shields are obliterated. Thrusters are gone, and station-keeping is now inactive. As a result, they can’t dodge any debris, nor can they maintain their orbit for much longer. A few hours at the most. The malware is also spreading to the rest of the attacking fleet, but mind you, they’ve got over eighty ships in this wave, so this may take a while.’
Without warning, some Katánian vessels untouched by the metanoid storm broke formation and zipped away.
‘They’re headed to the planet,’ Mirage announced.
Zane leaned forward in his chair. ‘Hell nada , no way.’
Thirty-odd Katánian hawkers were racing towards Devansi.
‘Way,’ the Sable A.I. said with a dry murmur.
‘Tell Kainan to keep the Katánians behind us busy while we take on the planetary charge.’
The Sable Riders’ khosi was leading an armada approaching along a geodesic between the planet’s moon and sun. They hid their approach by slipping into a large asteroid field, the planetoid’s brightest and noisiest phenomenon.
Now, they leapt into theater, surrounding the remaining Katánian ships.
Kainan’s voice roared over the speaker. ‘Go, Riders, I’ve got this.’
The Phantasm took an arced turn and burned for Devansi’s surface.
In the ready room, élisa fixed her eyes on the screen, her face tight and drawn.
Riv was supporting his fellow Riders, using the holo to pinpoint any incoming volleys for the enemy.
Killen stood at the viewport, his handsome face growing grave and stern.
‘I won’t stand for this.’ His undertone was laced with fierceness.
Riv jolted as his son swiveled on his heels, making a beeline for the bridge.
Killen ignored him, punching the panel to slide open the ready room’s secure door before striding inside the bustling command centre.
Riv charged out after him. ‘Killen, what the hell do you think you’re doing?’
‘What needs to be done.’ The younger man growled and pointed at the screen. ‘Open a channel to the Katánians.’
Zane turned to face Killen. ‘We can’t put you at risk. Nor your mother.’
Killen’s jaw clenched as he gazed dead ahead. ‘But I won’t let one Devansi die because of me. A channel, please.’
His calm, unwavering voice stopped all activity in the bustling command room. All eyes turned to Zane.
‘I’ll need to check in with Kainan.’
The Sable Riders’ khosi beat him to it, his rich, deep voice sounding out over comms from his ship. ‘Do as he says, Zane. I sense this young man is more prescient than we think. Let Killen choose his path.’
élisa stared at her son, her head shaking. ‘Are you sure about this course of action, my love?’
He gave a faint smile, glancing at her. ‘This is the reckoning we’ve been waiting for. It’s either now or never.’
She took a shaky breath as tears fell from her eyes. élisa summoned her inner strength and raised her chin in understanding at her son. ‘As you see fit.’
‘As I see it.’ He touched his hawkstone with a slight incline of his head.
Turning back to Zane, he lifted a brow. ‘Please.’
Zane sucked his lips, shared a glance with Riv, and then élisa. ‘Only if you three are sure.’
Riv squeezed his woman’s hand and gave her a nod.
‘We are.’ élisa whispered on behalf of their small family.
‘So be it,’ Zane rasped. ‘Mirage, do the honors.’
The AI did as commanded while Killen stepped before Phantasm’s screens.
‘My name is Killen Sable, and I believe I have what you’re after.’
A second holo showed the ships tracking towards Devansi, slowing and coming to a dead stop. Right above the same salt plain that the Riders had visited just a day earlier.
The holo view flickered, and a Katánian filled the screen.
It was not the spokesperson from their earlier conversation.
This time, the holo was dominated by a humanoid figure, an older being with a lined eagle-like face.
His eyes glowed like ice-cold diamonds, sparkling with hardness and a familiar lilac and silver flare.
His mouth was beaked and twisted with disdain, and he wore menace like a cloak.
A full, burnished beard tracked past his breastbone.
He, too, sported an impressive crest of chromed and lilac feathers. They flowed around his face in silvery wisps, joining the back of his head to create a plumage that shone with light and energy.
The effect was majestic, awe-inspiring, and nothing like Riv would have imagined.
The imperial creature leaned in, disbelieving, as he scowled at Killen. ‘Who the fokk are you that dares to wear the hawkstone?’
His vocalization was a merge of whispers, screeches, and echoes in the dark.
Killen seemed unmoved and smiled at the older Katánian. ‘Don’t you recognize me, grandfather?’
The Katánian jolted. He turned his hawk-like head to someone off-screen and let out a series of clicks and calls.
Killen lifted a hand. ‘Don’t bother your Kiama . They had no idea of my existence. Mother did a great job at hiding me from you.’
The imperial man swung his crested head back, the anger in the older Katánian’s eyes abating. ‘Where is she?’
Killen closed his eyes. Riv felt his woman move away from his embrace, and his heart fell as she stepped into view.
She met the old timer’s narrowed, glowing gaze with still and calm defiance. ‘I stand before you, Tempest of Light.’
The elder Imperial Hawk glowered at the silver-haired woman for a silent while.
His eyes glittered with emotion caught between resentment, rage, and longing.
His lips twisted as he spoke. ‘K’élisa. After all these years.’
élisa inclined her head. ‘It has been a long time.’
‘Many seasons of trials. Is that how much you hated me? That you chose to hide yourself from me for decades?’
‘I don’t hate you, Father. I loathe what you stand for.’
The Tempest of Light smirked. ‘And what is that?’
élisa straightened her back, taking her time to firm the right words. ‘Your cursed out-of-date philosophy. One set in the old ways and stirred up by angry old K?str?ls who stop at nothing to blaze and burn the galaxy. Incompetent, bloodthirsty crones, in thrall to worn-out ideologies, who care nothing for the young who always pay the price.’
Riv raised a brow, pride flooding his chest at his woman’s defiance.
The K?str?l King cackled. ‘I see you still have my steely boldness and your mother’s rapid mouth. I missed your strength and mastery by my side all these years, K’élisa. We would have made quite the ruling partnership.’
élisa’s lilac eyes flashed. ‘Steely? Don’t you mean your callous, ruthless, and hardhearted spirit? I am nothing close to that, but you never noticed or cared how different we were. And don’t tell me you miss me. What you yearn for is the power and truth of the hawkstone. You’d have slashed my maw for it had I remained in Kós.’
The older Katánian grinned. ‘I? Slit my daughter’s throat? Never.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘We both know that is untrue. You’ve always wanted the hawkstone’s potency for yourself to justify your position with longevity and guile, not wisdom or sense. You lost the ultimate lodestone because you ruled by fear and division, abusing the tenets of our heritage and poisoning the minds of your citizens with your vile, marauding greed.’
The Katánian emperor demurred with a series of rumbles under his breath. ‘You know not what you speak of. My search for you and that jewel was intended to bring unity back to Katánē. We are broken, disparate, lost in feudalism, and falling into the darkness. I need the hawkstone to unite us, and nothing will hinder my goal.’
élisa shook her head. ‘It’s not yours to command anymore. It passed on to me and now to my son. You cannot subvert the hawkstone’s will. It only and always passes on to the most deserving ruler of the Katánē. It made the obvious choice not to remain on your brow, meaning it did not deem you the rightful Kíríga . You’re not the King that it desires to unite Katánē.’
The Tempest scoffed. ‘Who then shall take on this mantle?’
Killen stepped forward and aimed his silver gaze at his grandfather. ‘I will.’
The Katánian King started for a moment, then threw his head back in a screech of laughter. ‘You’re barely a man. You’ve never soared with the K?str?l Sāb?r Hawks, nor trained with the crests of warriors, nor learned from the Elders. You’re also a half-breed. How the fokk do you think you’re going to rule a complex Kingdom such as ours?’
Killen stayed silent, his face calm against the rush of vitriol from his fore-bearer.
The Kíríga leaned in with a curl to his slashed lips. ‘You will never rule Katánē. I might have tolerated your mother, but you? Never. I will rip that hawkstone from your brow before I let you take my throne.’
His crushing fury perfused the command room.
Still, Killen was unmoved. ‘If it were up to me, I’d rather spend my days in peace, reading, wandering through nature, soaring the blue skies. But such as it may be, the hawkstone has chosen me to lead people I haven’t even met. It refuses to let go of me and its purpose. You will need to rip it off me, so to clarify, are you saying you want to challenge me for the hawkstone?’
élisa’s head whipped around to her son. ‘Killen, no!’
It was too late. The older Katánian on-screen moved back with a grin on his face. ‘The gauntlet has been thrown. Meet me on that white salt plain below our ships. It will be an honor to pluck that jewel from your bleeding scalp and witness your death.’
élisa swiveled to stab at her father with her flaming gaze. ‘You would fight your blood for power? Are you that vicious and venal?’
Her father ignored her outrage. Instead, he inclined back with a smile. ‘Today, I will rendezvous with victory and triumph, having secured what my people have searched for all these years. The glory of the potent stone is mine.’
The defiant King lifted a bronzed talon and clenched it into a fist. His eyes blazed, but they shone with a fleeting emotion that Riv could not explain.
The feed cut off to the sounds of screeched cheers from the Katánian contingent in the background.
élisa moved to Killen’s side. ‘Even though you’ve been honing your skills for years, his K?str?l Hawk mastery in battle far surpasses yours. You cannot fight him.’
‘Can’t I?’ her son countered with a smile, a quiet confidence oozing from him.
‘You also don’t have his untapped greed. He’s a genocidal gerontocrat who won’t hesitate to end your life to get what he wants.’
Killen crossed his hands over his chest. ‘Mother, did you take a good look at him? He looked worn. His crest did not have the shine mine does. He is aging, befuddled by myopic misjudgment, old ideas, and fat with power slipping from his talons. I noted flashes of agitation in his eyes. I sense he has to fight me for the sake of his sycophants, but he doubts he’ll win, given that I am an unknown factor. So while he congratulates himself on winning, he does not know what I’m capable of and fears it.’
élisa bucked. ‘You saw all that?’
‘And more,’ Killen murmured, leaning in to buss her on the cheek. ‘Worry not, Mother of mine. The hawkstone is on my side.’
élisa kept on. ‘Are you certain you’re battle-ready?’
Killen smiled. ‘While I still struggle with taking on this mantle, I’ve studied the K?str?l ways from the lessons you gave me. I’ve practiced and soared across Devansi, sparred with wild tribes, and used the hawkstone to gain as much insight into Katánian fighting and combat styles as possible. I’m as primed as I’ll ever be.’
Riv raked his eyes over his son. ‘Killen, I trust you. I’ve seen some of what you can do and believe in all you are. I’ll also be on hand, as shall all the Riders when and if you need us.’
Killen gave his father a long embrace. ‘Your support is appreciated.’
élisa grabbed her son by the shoulders, looking into his silver eyes. ‘What else does the hawkstone say?’
‘It says the present Kíríga’s time has passed.’
élisa took a breath. ‘Which means his demise is imminent.’
When Riv grunted to comfort her, she shook her head. ‘I made peace with that fact many years ago. Just promise me you’ll make sure yours is not as well.’
‘I’ll return to you.’ Killen turned to Riv. ‘If it is OK with you, Father, please take us to the surface.’
Riv held up his hands in surrender. ‘Son, I can only believe in your fokkin ’ balls of steel, and I offer to escort you to Devansi as your wing-man.’
Riv’s dry humor had the desired effect.
Killen’s mouth twitched as the atmosphere on the bridge relaxed.
With a small smile, the massive half-Katánian turned and strode to the command elevator. His looming, lean, and powerful form gave off a potency that drew all eyes to him.
However, he didn’t seem to revel in the attention. Instead, he bowed his head in humility until he disappeared.
‘Like I said last night,’ Zane said, joining Riv and élisa, ‘that young man’s power is off the charts, and I believe we’re about to be treated to a skirmish that will blow our minds.’