Demon Lord VII - Dark Domain (17 page)

He frowned,
irritated. He was not in the mood for questions or pleas. “What do
you want?”

She appeared a
little taken aback by his testy tone. “To speak to you, Lord. May I
come in?”

He shrugged and
gestured to the sofa. She went over to settle on it and study her
hands. Bane sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. “Speak then, I
am tired.”

She looked up.
“I… I want to apologise for what happened... when you came to
dinner.”

“Nothing
happened.”

“No but… I
didn’t mean to offend you, Lord.”

He yawned. “You
did not.”

“Or embarrass
you.”

“You did not.
Is there a point to this?”

“Please don’t
leave me in Drevarin’s world.” The words came out in a rush, as if
she barely had the courage to speak them. “I know you’re doing it
to help me, and I’m grateful for everything you’ve done, it’s
just…. If you let me stay with you, I’ll do whatever I can to help
you, and I can be useful.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I do not have
to explain myself to you.”

“No, no, of
course not.” She looked down at her twisting hands again. “I could
take command of Retribution again, with your help, of course, or
Miraculous, and take you wherever you want to go.”

“No.”

“But....”
Nikira hesitated, her breath catching. “I know I don’t deserve to
stay with you, after what I did to you, but… I thought maybe you’d
prefer to continue your journey in comfort, in a ship.” She rose
and approached him, forcing him to look up at her when she stopped
in front of him. “I would do anything for you, Lord. I’ll be
whatever you need me to be. Please… just let me stay with you.”

“No.”

“Why not?” Her
voice shook a little, and he had the impression that she clung to
her dignity with a great deal of effort. To his amazement, she sat
on the bed beside him, close enough to touch him. He watched her,
fascinated by her boldness.

“If you let me
help you, Lord,” she went on, “you won’t have to walk through the
Wastes; you and your friends and family will be safe and
comfortable aboard a ship. You’ll sleep in soft beds every night,
eat good food, have all the benefits a modern ship can give you.
After everything you’ve done, saving my world, and me, I want to do
something for you.”

He looked away
from her pleading eyes. “No.”

Nikira edged
closer, her thigh almost touching his, and raised a hand to caress
his arm. “I also want the chance to make amends for what I did to
you. Is that too much to ask?”

Bane turned his
head to study her. “You are bold.”

She snatched
her hand back and clasped them in her lap once more. “Sorry… I
didn’t mean to -”

“Go back to
your room.”

Nikira’s eyes
grew bright with tears. “I don’t think I could bear it if you left
me behind in Drevarin’s world.” She gulped. “I love you.”

“Then you are a
fool.”

“Why?”

“Because I am
sworn to my wife, and I will never betray her.” His voice dropped
to a husky murmur. “You have no idea what you are trying to meddle
with, do you? Do you think you are the first to try this? You are
not. Your attempts at seduction insult me, since you obviously
assume that I will sink to your level of immorality, or you would
not persist. You have no concept of true love. Even when death
separates Mirra and me, I will await her rebirth, even after I lose
my mortality. Return to your room. Now.”

She stared at
him with anguished eyes, and then jumped up and fled.

As the door
closed behind her, he sensed another presence and glanced around.
Mirra stood in the bathroom doorway, gazing at the cabin door
through which Nikira had just vanished. Evidently she had returned
while he slept and had been using the bathroom when Nikira had
arrived.

He groaned and
rubbed his face. “You heard that?”

“Every
word.”

“Why is it that
humans always judge me by their own standards?”

Mirra came
over, pushed him back on the bed and climbed on top of him. “You
are human too, and you must be doing something to make all these
women fall in love with you.”

He raised his
brows. “‘All these women’?”

“Yes; first
Tarris and Shevra, then Ethra and Sarrin, and now poor Nikira.” She
tilted her head. “And that is just about all the women you have met
since we left Myrthran.”

“What? Ethra is
a child, and Sarrin an old priestess. As for Tarris…” He shook his
head. “You are wrong.”

“I am
never
wrong.”

Bane studied
her serious expression, puzzled and uncertain, and then noticed the
twinkle in her eyes. He smiled. “I cannot hide anything from you,
can I? I seduced them all, of course. It only took a wink and a
smile, and -” She punched his arm, and he grunted and clutched it.
“Ah! I think you have opened a wound...”

“Nonsense,
Drevarin healed you. You are not supposed to lie to me, remember?
It was one of your wedding vows.”

He grinned.
“Unless you lie to me first.”

“I did
not!”

“I must be
doing something? You know full well I am not.”

“You are
such
a monster, Bane. Those poor women do not have a hope of
resisting you. I will wager you wish you were single. Imagine how
much fun you could have.”

He chuckled and
pulled her close. “I know. Marry in haste and repent at leisure.”
She tried to push him away, but he held her tighter. “Uh-uh, be
nice.”

“I should put
you over my knee,” she growled.

He gave a bark
of laughter. “Promise?”

“You are
incorrigible!”

“You married a
dark… thing, what did you expect?”

“A dark thing
all of my own.”

“A prize
indeed.”

Mirra snuggled
up to him, and he held her until his eyes grew heavy with fatigue
again, then rose, shed his trousers and climbed into the narrow
bed. She joined him, and he drew her close and closed his eyes. A
few moments later, she murmured, “What you said...”

“Hush. Go to
sleep.”

“Could you ever
be tempted?”

“No.”

“Even by a
goddess?”

“Only if the
goddess was you.”

She shivered.
“I would not want to be a goddess.”

Later, when her
even breaths told him that she slept, he opened his eyes to gaze at
the dappled white ceiling, his heart heavy.

In the cabin
she had been assigned, Nikira poured a stiff drink and reviewed her
disastrous encounter with Bane, her mind a quagmire of despair and
pain. She had thought that offering her services as a stealth ship
commander would persuade him to allow her to remain with him. She
did not want to be dumped in a strange world where she would have
no friends, no family, and no history. Much as she revered
Drevarin, she could never worship him; she loved Bane too much. She
had not meant to touch him, but once again she had been unable to
keep her hands off him. She had not intended to reveal her
feelings, either, but the words had trotted off her tongue without
her permission, and she cursed herself. Sitting on the couch, she
gulped the drink and gasped as it stung her throat.

Seeing Bane
again had thrilled and uplifted her, although his near-fatal
encounter with one of the dra’voren dismayed her. The fact that a
stealth ship had helped him filled her with pride, and she longed
to know more of what had happened while she had been waiting beyond
Minto Peak. She would have to visit Sarjan to find out, although he
would not know the whole story. Clearly not everything had gone
according to plan, contributing to Bane’s filthy mood when she had
visited him. She had always had bad timing, but she had been afraid
he would pull another disappearing act before she could ask him if
she did not do it right away. Now she wished she had waited a few
days, until he recovered. Trust her to go rushing in like a
fool.

Draining her
glass, she rose and refilled it, remembering his words. What must
it be like, to be the wife of a god? To be so loved by him, so
cherished, so irreplaceable, that he would love her even after she
was dead? No one had ever loved her like that. Her married lovers
had spoken sweet words and given her expensive gifts, but none had
loved her. Even her unmarried lovers had left her in the end. What
was it about Mirra that made Bane love her so? She was just a girl,
no more than eighteen years old and no stunning beauty.

Bane’s words
had shattered her dreams, and she struggled to come to terms with
their destruction. She now knew that trying to seduce him again was
hopeless, but she could not stop dreaming about it, hoping and
wishing that he might return her feelings. She drained her glass
again and sighed. She still longed to be close to him, to share his
adventures and love him from afar. It would be better than never
seeing him again. Maybe a vestige of hope remained, if he
considered her offer and decided that a stealth ship would be
useful to take him on his journey, he might still ask her to
command it.

Returning to
the bottle, she filled her glass once more. She somehow doubted
that Sarjan would offer his services; he had a wife and two
children in Bayona. Judging by the poor state Bane and his charges
had been in when she had captured him, they had had a tough time of
it in the Wastes. Even though he had Kayos with him now, the Wastes
was a dangerous place to travel through on foot. In her years of
commanding a stealth ship, some of the horrors she had seen in the
deep regions had been the stuff of nightmares.

Nikira was sure
most of her crewmembers would accept her as their commander again,
and be prepared to go along for the adventure, as well as the
opportunity to study the creators and Bane. They were a brave,
adventurous bunch, as any stealth ship’s crew had to be.

Governor
Predoran glared at Major Ranjal, who met his eyes unflinching.
Predoran was tired of the constant failure. Everything he tried
turned into a disaster, and now this.

“So let me get
this straight,” Predoran said, “our ships failed to capture any of
those damned dra’voren worshippers, and two shiny flying people
appeared and protected them, then Miraculous pitched up and took
them all aboard? And a destroyer and two frigates couldn’t stop
her?”

“Yes sir. The
warships took vidimages of the strange people, and the news
stations have been showing them in Bayona. Some scientists are
talking about them possibly being creators. Miraculous left the
valley after three hours and returned to Cloud World. She’s still
there, and appears to be damaged, but we don’t know what happened
to her. It’s a mystery, sir, as is the speed with which she arrived
at Minto Peak. There are reports of a stealth ship being seen in
Bayona, and it sounds like it was Miraculous, but she was at Minto
Peak just a few minutes later. How she got to Bayona is also a
mystery.”

Predoran tapped
his fingers on his desk. “At least our attempt to capture those
people forced the dra’voren to reopen the Great Gate. And now we
know we’re dealing with more than one, three at least, maybe four.
They’re not creators, Ranjal, they’re dra’voren. I’m sure they can
make themselves glow if they want.” He paused, frowning. “This
shield the warships saw around Miraculous, do we have any idea what
generated it?”

“No, sir,
although, according to Senior SciTech Drontar’s report about his
experience aboard Retribution, it’s the same as the one the
dra’voren used to protect the ship out in the Wastes.”

“Interesting.
Have we been in contact with Miraculous?”

Ranjal shook
his head. “No, sir, and President Randoman has denied authorising
the mission, as Commander Sarjan claimed, so either he’s in league
with the dra’voren now, or their prisoner.”

“Or the
dra’voren was in charge, and Sarjan did it to save his ship.”

“But the
warships couldn’t harm her.”

Predoran sat
back with a sigh. “Maybe he didn’t know that. I refuse to believe
that another stealth ship commander has lost his wits. Sarjan is a
thirty-year veteran. There’s no way he fell for their lies like
Nikira did.”

“If these are
dra’voren we’re dealing with, Governor, I’m sure they can easily
twist a person’s mind and make them do anything they want.”

“Perhaps.
That’s a scary thought, though. If that’s the case, why don’t they
just take over Randoman’s mind?”

“Maybe they
haven’t thought of it yet.”

The governor
leant forward again. “You know what’s really interesting? President
Parsimon has vanished, and his people claim he was abducted from
his office in a flash of blue light. It sounds like one of our
stealth ships did it, and it could only have been Miraculous.”

Ranjal nodded.
“She’s been out of contact for a while now.”

“Where’s
Retribution?”

“She’s being
overhauled. Her last mission was a bumpy one.”

“Well,
Parsimon’s disappearance has had the fortunate effect of ending the
war between Bayona and Vockroy, at least for now; which is just as
well, since most of our fleet has been wiped out.” Predoran
steepled his hands. “We have to find a way to keep the gate open.
Now that it is, it should be easier. Those weapons point outwards,
and there aren’t any inside, are there?”

“No sir.
There’s no damage in Cloud World.”

“What do we
have that could destroy the Great Gate?”

Ranjal
hesitated, clearly uneasy. “If we try to blow it up again, those
weapons will reactivate and it will close again.”

“Not if it’s
rubble, and those weapons will hit the same areas as before, won’t
they?”

“Yes, sir, as
far as we can tell, they can’t change their trajectory, other than
to fire further away from the gate.”

“So they’ve
done all the damage they can to the city,” Predoran said. “Granted,
a second attack might cause a few casualties, but we can evacuate
the danger zones. You’ve heard the threats those damned dra’voren
have made, to close the gate forever. We can’t allow that. We have
to find a way to destroy it or jam it or something. It must stay
open.”