Wishing Stars Ch. 11

A rough hand crashed down onto her skull. The thick, white fingers interlaced between the three spikes of her crown. Thalia's stomach fell away as she was thrown through the air, flipped, and landed over Xieol's shoulder. The air rushed out of her lungs in a whoosh at the impact with his back. The room erupted in applause. Arkzirax everywhere through their mighty fists together and bellowed their approval as Xieol leapt off the dais and strode out of the room, his Empress hanging over his massive shoulder.

Thalia only hoped the cameras had cut in time.

Xieol said nothing as he strode though the citadel. Her head knocked into his back with each massive stride. When he took the tower stairs four at a time, she thought she would lose consciousness. Her ears popped, lights burst before her eyes.

When he arrived at that dreaded room atop the tower, he kicked in the door before it had time to retract into the wall. Without a thought, he ripped her body from him and tossed her across the room. She flew into the wall with a gasp. Her body crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. The crown hit the ground with a thud.

Xieol was already approaching her. His words boomed in the round room. Thalia couldn't hear him over the blood pounding in her ears. She looked up and saw him looming over her through a haze of red. Her fingers wrapped around something cold. Xieol loomed above her and without a thought, Thalia drove the pronged metal crown up.

Right into his stomach.

His right hand clutched his abdomen, his left hit her in a punishing backhand that sent her flying into the wall. She looked up at him from the floor in a daze. The prongs of the crown slid out of his abdomen coated in black, oily blood. It dripped down his white skin and marred the slick floor where it fell in tiny drops.

"I will watch them cut you open myself." He said.

He spun on his heel and left the room. Thalia hoped he had gone to tend to his wound. A certain excitement coursed through her veins. She had hurt him. For some reason she had held him above mortal pain in her head. But now, oh now, he could bleed. The Mighty Xieol was not invincible.

Three gearmen filed into the room before the door shut. They stared down at Thalia, smiling where she laid on the floor. Her mind whirred along with the sounds of the gearmen.

"Get back," She ordered, as she drug herself up from the ground. "Stand against the wall."

The Gearmen fell back without protest. Once they were all pressed against the opposite wall, Thalia wrapped the long train of her gown around herself, until she was fully cocooned in the metal scales.

"Thank you for your service." She told the gearmen. "And tell Xeiol... Tell him no."

Clutching the train about herself, she took a running leap through the window. Sparks exploded as she passed through the net. Fireworks danced before her eyes for a split second. Then her stomach dropped and she fell. Cold wind stun her eyes. Tears dripped down her cheeks before they too were whipped away. Far beneath her the green grass and the crystal mirror lakes rose to meet her.

At least she would not die Xieol's puppet. For once in his life he would be denied. The grand plans he had announced would come to naught. The whole court, the entire known universe had heard him proclaim he would use her to achieve supreme dominance. Now they would all see his failure at her hands. Her feeble human hands would rip his dreams from him.

Maybe she was playing right into Cruft's plan, or Eliane's. Maybe she had always been intended to die this way. It was better though. Better than to die at his hands. She closed her eyes and listened to the wind howl around the outside of her cocoon.

Sooner than she expected, she collided with something, hard. Shock slowly bubbled away and she realized she was alive. Hardly even injured, aside from some new bruises. Shaking hands peeled away the train of her dress, and she gasped.

The wind continued to howl around her as she sped sideways around the tower wall. Her window loomed above and the ground... the ground was still far below. Puzzled, she splayed her fingers against the hard surface that was preventing her fall. It was as if the air itself had hardened and was speeding her away from the tower. Already the citadel was becoming smaller on the horizon.

Then the hard surface below her began to take form. What had once seemed nothing but air began to solidify into a silver form. It was a huge conical shape with two fins, one rising above her and one pointing downward.

A ship. She had landed on the nose of a spaceship.

The ship made a quick bank to the right and Thalia shrieked as she began to slide towards the edge. She scrabbled across the smooth surface and was just about to lose her grip on the craft entirely when a man appeared above her and grabbed her by the wrist. She was quickly jerked up onto the wing and through a hatch into the ship proper.

"Get back to work!" Her rescuer yelled at the blurry forms around her. Thalia's heart pounded in her throat. She swallowed back nausea and disbelief.

"Show's over!" The male voice boomed again.

She looked up at her savior again and watched him tangle his hand into his chestnut hair in frustration. "Steer to the forest," He commanded, and the other forms around them rushed into movement. "Get us out of here!"

"Of course this happens the one time I decide to cut through a restricted zone!" Thalia noticed she was suddenly alone with the strange man. He turned his attention to her. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing crashing onto my ship?"

"I'm...Thalia."

"And?" He demanded, unimpressed.

"You didn't watch the broadcast, did you?"

"While stealth-moding through a restricted zone? Close enough to reach out and touch the main citadel?" He looked at her like she was insane, "No. I must have missed it, why?"

After the ceremony, Xieol's blow to her face, the electronic netting and almost falling to her death, Thalia couldn't find anything to say. She watched blankly as the man picked up a remote control and punched in the keys. A display on the dash lit up and showed them the entire ceremony in triple-time. The man hit a button and the image froze on a close up of her smiling face.

"Crap." Was all he said as he grabbed her by the upper arm and began dragging her down a hall.

"I can walk!" She ripped her arm free. To her surprise, the man allowed it.

"Well, then, after you, Empress." He made a grand gesture down the hall.

"Just Thalia," She muttered, her nerves shot. Despite his gesture, the man turned and led the way down the hall. He stopped at the last door and punched a number into a key pad. The door clicked open and he pulled her inside quickly. He shut the door behind them.

He walked over to a messy desk covered in paper and electronic note pads alike. Unceremoniously, he dumped himself into the chair so that he could rest his chin on its back. He gestured casually to the small cot opposite him.

Thalia began to refuse, but the stress of the past few hours won out and she slumped on the edge of the bed. Besides, she felt oddly comfortable with the man. He was larger than her, to be sure, but he did not tower over her. His skin and hair looked similar to hers, although her hair was darker and his skin was tanned.

"You're human?" She asked, in awe.

"You're perceptive." He returned, unimpressed, "I'm Captain Alders and you are currently aboard my ship. Mind telling me why?"

Thalia hesitated, unsure where to begin.

"I would settle for how." He was getting impatient.

"My dress," She fingered the metal plates that made up the gown. "It shielded me from the electronic net on my window. I didn't know about your ship. I couldn't see it."

"And yet, you still jumped out a window that high up? Are you insane?"

"He was going to have them cut me open and harvest my insides! What would you have done?" She returned, suddenly furious. "How long would you have sat there and let them beat you just because you are human? Then paint you up like a doll and pretend you have any value at all, just to do it over again?"

"Wait, wait," He held up his hands in a gesture of peace, "Cut you open? He just declared you his Empress. He needs you for an heir... God." He ran his hands through his thick hair again and looked down at the worn carpet.

"He hates me," She went on quietly, "He won't...mate... with me. He thinks humans are revolting. So his scientists are going to harvest my eggs and fertilize them in a lab."

"An Arkzirax heir made in a lab?" He asked, shocked, "That goes completely against their ways—"

"That's exactly what the King said," She looked away, "And Xieol killed him for it."

"Don't say that!" Alders exclaimed and jumped to his feet. One hand shot up to cover her face. He looked at her for a moment, and schooled his expression. Slowly, he sat back down. "Don't ever say that again, or you'll most likely end up dead too."

"It's true, though. I saw it."

"There are some truths we all know but don't say to save our necks." He returned.

"I have no neck to save." She responded. "He is going to kill me as soon as I give him an heir. If he doesn't accidently beat me to death first."

"Beat you," He repeated, "The Arkzirax treasure their Vessels above all else. They need you to survive."

"Not Xieol," She said, "He hates me because everyone wants him to mate with me."

"Mate," Alders screwed up his face, "It's such an Arkzirax word for it."

"What would you call it?" She asked. In all her education on the quarantine ship that was the only word for the act that she had been taught.

"Well..." He seemed suddenly uncomfortable, "There's sex...or making love. But when you don't want it, that's rape. It's considered a crime to humans." He gave her a pitying look.

"Call it what you want," She ignored her burning cheeks, "But it is the only way he did not want to touch me." She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror then. A disheveled mess of glitter and eyeliner. "Can I get this stuff off my face, please?"

"Sure," Alders kicked off his chair and causally punched a key code into a panel on the opposite wall. The door slid open and Thalia saw a small bathing room within. "Take your time."

He walked over to a cabinet against the wall and pulled a large shirt out of the top drawer. He gave it a sniff, shrugged, and tossed it to her. One of his shirts. He saw her look and gave a half smile. "I'm all out of fine gowns, unfortunately,"

With a snort, she took the shirt and walked towards the bathroom door.

"Wait," He called from behind. He walked towards her and pressed the weight of a gun into her hand. She immediately recoiled and tried to give it back, but he wrapped her hands around the handle and held them there. He held her eyes as he spoke.

"You are a runaway Empress on your Emperor's home planet. You are also on an illegal ship full of males that haven't seen a female in a year. If anything comes into this cabin besides me, you shoot. Okay?"

She nodded and he let go, leaving her to grip the weapon uncertainly.

"Good," He straightened and headed for the main door. "I'm going to see about getting us off this damn planet."

With that, he was gone. Thalia gingerly carried his shirt and the gun, as if they were both weapons, to the bathroom and slid the door closed behind her. Without help, it took quite a while to get the golden dress off of her body. Eventually, she managed. The shower turned on automatically when she stepped into the small stall. She gasped as the cold, unheated water sprayed her, but grit her teeth and bared it. A few minutes of scrubbing and her makeup and body paint were swirling around the drain.

She stepped out and pulled Captain Alder's shirt onto her cold, still wet body. When she emerged into the main room, he was still gone. So she crept into the small cot and pulled the blanket over herself to ease her shivering. Against her will, the day took its toll and she fell asleep.

When she woke, it was to the harsh sound of snoring. She crept to the edge of the bed and looked down. The captain was asleep on the worn rug, his arm flung under his head as a pillow. He was still fully dressed in his brown leather flight suit.

Quietly, she rose to a seated position and gazed down at him. She had never seen a human male before. He was so like her and so different at the same time. It was fascinating. His chestnut hair was cut shaggily and rumpled. Short stubbly hairs had sprouted up on his jaw since she had last seen him. His chin was sharper than hers, more angular than round, and his nose was also more prominent than hers. Yet, it fit in with his other features. His eyes— were open.

She fought her impulse to flinch away and instead held his gaze. There was a question in his eyes, but after a moment he shook his head. He stretched his whole body out like a cat and rose to a seated position on the rug.

"Enjoying the view or considering murder?" He asked with a yawn.

"You were snoring,"

"Ah, so murder then," He rose to his feet and gave another large stretch. As his arms lifted up, she caught a glimpse of his tanned stomach. And belly button.

"You are so human," She murmured.

"One hundred percent, if you believe my mother," He sat on the edge of the bed, careful to keep distance between them.

It suddenly annoyed her that he was skirting around her like she was some frightened animal. It annoyed her more that she felt like one.

"Which I do, by the way," he added.

"What?"

"Believe my mother," His voice was still cautious, trying not to frighten her,

"You seemed concerned. It was a joke."

"No... that's not it." She shrugged, "I'm just tired of being so jumpy all the time."

"He really did that to you?" He asked. Now that the makeup was gone, bruises once again marred her face and arms. Some touch of disbelief in his tone struck a nerve.

"Why?" She returned angrily, "Is he some hero of yours?"

"God," He scoffed, "Quite the opposite."

"So you're an enemy of his?"

"There was a reason my ship was in stealth mode." He glanced at her sideways.

"Why?"

"I think that's a question for when I know you better, Empress."

"My name is Thalia, Captain." Angry, she rose to her feet. Her hands balled into fists.

"I'm good with 'Captain'", He stood with a shrug and was suddenly much too close to her. "You take the bed Thalia. It's time for my watch anyway." He slid past her and grabbed up his boots from where they had been discarded near the door. "Keep that near you," He nodded towards the gun on the bedside table.

"Where are we going?" She asked, glancing around the windowless cabin.

He hesitated, then said, "Somewhere safe."

"You need to re-watch that broadcast, then," She said bitterly, "Nowhere is safe."

His eyes softened. "You are safe here, Thalia."

"Then why do I need a gun?"

"Well...safer," He amended and nodded to the bed, "Get some sleep. The ship travels faster at night. We'll be there tomorrow. You'll see."

"See what?"

"Well, more humans, for one."