Page 66 of Sway’s Peace (Delivery Service #2)

Loyalty jerked him close and grabbed him by the head. He shoved him down, just in time to avoid the stunning bolts that had been shot his way. They flew over them, hitting the ground with a pop of the electric nodes firing despite having missed landing in flesh.

Sway wanted to argue further, but he didn’t get the chance.

The courtyard was quickly emptying of farasie. His people might not fight, but they were certainly adept at fleeing. Possibly for that very reason.

It opened a lot of room for the domini – who definitely did not have any qualms against violence – to come rushing their way.

It was a battle. The type Sway hadn’t been involved in for a long time. Not since Tanin had made him the promise that he’d never have to fight again.

It came back to him almost too quickly.

Domini were impressive fighters. They loved it. Lived for it. They weren’t just unburdened by ideas of pacifism, but even the mental load violence often wrought. There was no shame to defeat for the domini, only in retreat and surrender.

And that was the attitude that came rushing at them now. Claws bared. Fangs out. Bearing weapons that tilted an already heavily one-sided fight.

But Sway had been raised on Rik-Vane. He’d fought every day of his life. And it wasn’t luck alone that let him live this long.

He ran right back at them.

Unprepared for him to suddenly go on the offensive, the first person he caught up to wasn’t ready for Sway to slam his fist right into the side of his head, knocking him to the side.

He planted a foot, turned, and kicked away the pistol that was aiming towards him from another.

A second, third, fourth kick from the same leg landed in rapid succession.

The familiar thud of bone on flesh was an ache he hadn’t forgotten. His legs, with their hardened skin, especially protected by the leather of his boots, were like clubs. And he was quick, striking and dodging faster than his attackers could follow.

Behind him, Loyalty roared. It wasn’t a sound of pain, but of anger. Sway spared him a quick glance, just to check on him.

Loyalty might very well have survived on Rik-Vane as well.

He certainly had the ferocity for it. He fought like a wild beast. He had completely adapted to the body he claimed, and he was using it as a lethal weapon.

Teeth and claws ripped through the domini who, in the typical, hardheaded way of their kind, refused to back down even as he grabbed one by the arm with his teeth, muzzle snapping around the limb with a bone crunching snap, and thrashed him around like a doll.

He then yanked his head to the side and tossed him, letting him fly away with a pained yell.

Blood dripped from between his fangs, as he dove towards another. Vicious and merciless. It was truly impressive.

Sway turned away from him, focusing on his own fight.

He wasn’t biting into people, and he didn’t have claws to shred their skin. But the blows he landed were bone breakers. He wouldn’t leave more than a bruise visible on the skin, but when he landed his knee across someone’s gut, the internal damage he did cause could be lethal.

As he kicked someone away, he looked back to the dais, but it was empty. His father had vanished at some point in the fray.

Had he gone to Grace?

Sway took a step that way. Not really thinking. Maybe he could track him down. Follow him to where his female was hidden. He could-

Someone grabbed his arm and yanked him back. He turned, but stopped himself from punching the back of Loyalty’s head. He was pulling him away, towards the side streets, away from the now empty dais, over the groaning or unmoving bodies of the downed domini.

But there were more coming. Reinforcements calling out. They would be bringing weapons, and now that all the civilians were cleared from the courtyard, they wouldn’t have to worry about hurting, or killing, anyone else.

Sway hated to admit it, but Loyalty was right. They needed to get away. Regroup. The threat against him was greater than the one against Grace.

By their own admission, they were keeping her until they knew she wasn’t carrying a farasie hatchling in her belly.

Something that advanced mediscanners would be able to pick up at this stage.

Though, if they didn’t, the result could just be an error due to how early it would be.

And actual fertilization could still take days to occur.

They’d need to give it time. A few days to a full tenday to be sure.

Maybe even two if they were going to be very careful.

Sway knew there was no chance she was carrying. Human females practiced birth control. They were too prolific to just allow themselves the risk of falling pregnant whenever chance allowed it. Especially when coupled with alien males.

She had stopped her ovulation. There were some species, he knew, where males could induce ovulation in their females, and that might work on human females as well, but he was not one of them. There was no chance his female was carrying.

But so long as they didn’t know that, she was safe. They would care for her and not throw her into the wilds just to protect the innocent young she could possibly be carrying.

Which meant that Sway had time. He could come back to her after regrouping. And unlike the domini, he saw absolutely no shame in a strategic retreat.

He and Loyalty ran together as they took the back allies of the Song at random. Trying to shake the determined, camouflaged species chasing after them.

“Where are we going?” Sway asked, following Loyalty as he seemed to have something of a plan. At least, his eyes were straight forward. His sense of smell was also much better than Sway’s, meaning he probably knew which turn held enemies and which did not before they even arrived.

“The forest,” Loyalty barked back, taking another turn. “We can regroup there!”

It was as good a plan as any, and much easier to accomplish than Sway would have expected. He thought for sure their attackers were going to try to shoot them down.

But no. Of course not.

Veesway employed these domini mercenaries to protect them because they could not stand violence for themselves. But they couldn’t outright order them to kill someone. That, Sway understood, would be too far for their pacifistic nature, even if it wasn’t their own hand.

Ordering someone to protect you and them choosing to do it violently could be rationalized as not their fault, but straight out ordering them to kill could not.

The domini chasing them down were herding them. Trying to force them into the jungle. It would, Sway knew, be much easier to leave the Song than to get back in. But he didn’t stop. They’d deal with that problem when it came up.

The tall, tropical jungle was dark, imposing, and dangerous.

This dwarf planet was terraformed, but the wild animals would have been chosen to try to keep and maintain a balance.

Unchecked herbivores were absolutely devastating to an environment.

He didn’t know what predators might lurk in those trees, chosen to keep those numbers in check.

But he did know that he was not a survivalist. He could fight and survive in a station, in a city, in dangerous places full of people. But doing so in the wilds was a completely different skill set. One he absolutely did not have.

Still, he didn’t hesitate to follow Loyalty as he made his way towards the wall that was erected around the city.

He moved like he knew where he was going, and apparently, he did.

The place he led them to wasn’t just an ordinary stretch of wall.

It was a maintenance door. One that let out right beside one of the large obelisks that were used for maintaining gravity and atmosphere.

Loyalty shoved his way through, knocking the door down.

It had been completely ripped out of its tracks already, making it easy.

When Sway ran through, he turned and helped Loyalty lift it back into place.

They shoved it up, making it look as natural as possible before they turned and ran into the trees.

It was immediately a completely different world. A wild and unnerving one. The ground turned uneven and natural, the neatly laid roads replaced by detritus and rough terrain. Loyalty didn’t hesitate, charging through like he knew the place.

Luckily, the vibrant glow of his quills and eyes were easy to follow. Sway could focus on not tripping and falling as he jogged after him.

Too quickly, the sounds of the Song faded at their backs. The quiet, subtle music of the forest replaced it. The difference was jarring.

Sway paused and turned.

Through the trees, just barely, he could see the lights of the Song. He couldn’t hear their music any longer, but it was still whistling in his brain. Right alongside the screams of his past.

His chest hurt. Like something was ripping inside. It made each breath hard to pull in, but somehow also made each exhale feel incomplete. Like the air was still trapped there, creating a pressure that was going to either explode outward or cause an implosion.

His people, his father…

“Sway.”

He turned back again. Loyalty was there, glowing in the darkness. Staring at him from a few paces away, breathing hard.

He said nothing, but there was something like understanding in his gaze.

Sway looked away again. Back to the Song. It hurt no less the second time.

He put it to his back and followed Loyalty deeper into the darkness.