The Swords of Gregara - Jenala, a sci-fi romance

CHAPTER 1

Swords clashed.
 
Jenala Delasa fought savagely for her life against the man who would dare try to get her kalcion mine.
 
And claim her.
 
The bastard Zlaten Vandalar.
 
The man she believed murdered her father six months ago.
 
He attacked her with the intention of kidnapping and raping her, giving her no choice but to be claimed under the law.
 
She’d fall on her own sword before she’d allow him to claim her.
 
No, he attacked her in the narrow alleyway with every intention of kidnapping and raping her.

A passerby, having heard the gray metal swords clanging off of each other, sparks flying, and her shouts of rage, rushed to watch the spectacle.
 
Jenala dared him a quick glance when he yelled and ran toward them.
 
Momentarily startled, she missed her jab.
 
Zlaten sidestepped, turned and flayed open her back from the left shoulder to the bottom of her ribcage on the right side.
 
Jenala fell to the ground.
 
Zlaten looked up at the stranger approaching and visibly paled.
 
He sneered at her as he ran a finger through her blood that dripped from the tip of his sword.
 
“You’re not fit now.
 
I’ll come when you’re healed then you’ll be mine.”
  
He looked up at the stranger getting closer, turned and ran.

The stranger came to her, her sword still tightly gripped in her right hand.
 
She’d dropped to her knees, never releasing her sword.
 
The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth from where she’d bitten her tongue.
 
She looked up with pain bleary eyes, expecting to see reproach or perhaps opportunity.
 
If this man decided to claim her as Zlaten had, she could not fight him off.
 
Instead she saw compassion.
 
He removed his shirt and took great care to wrap her back to staunch the flow of blood.
 
Jenala hissed at the contact, white flashing light blurred her vision.
 
She knew he tried his best to cause her as little pain as possible, but it didn’t matter Jenala didn’t know if she could handle the searing pain another moment.
 
He picked her up and carried her toward town.
 
The only person who could help was the town nupenian, who cared for animals.
 
The quack they had for a doctor would surely kill her and she wasn’t taking the chance.
 
Brenton could sew her up as well as the doctor could.
 

“Take me to the nupenian,” she said, her voice little more than a croak.

There hadn’t been a decent doctor in Rucem, since she was born twenty-seven years ago.
 
Dr. Nort had retired after delivering every baby, treating every illness and wound in the entire province for the previous forty years.
 
Rucem was the capital and the largest outpost in the province.
 
It was a months hard travel to get to the nearest large town with a doctor.
 
The distance was so far, she’d only done it once with her father.
 

She must have lost consciousness, the next think she knew, she was looking up at a handsome man with a black eye patch and one gorgeous moss green eye.
 
The pain was gone.
 
Brenton must have provided her a pain blocker, thank Krios!
 
The man left instructions that she was to be taken to Wardsons Bedstay when the damage was fully sealed, though how he knew her accommodations she had no idea.
 
After the stranger left, Jenala wet her lips and finally asked.
 
“Well?
 
How does it look?”
 
She wiped at her mouth, afraid she’d drooled and it would be bloody on her face.

“It was a critical wound and will take time to heal.
 
You could have been killed.
 
You’re lucky you were just laid open and it didn’t get your kidney or some other necessary organ,” said Brenton, the town nupenian.
 
He had been her father’s best friend.
 
Now he was Jenala’s confident.
 
Her father had been murdered six months ago and they both mourned the loss.
 
What made the pain of his death even worse was the knowledge that his killer wanted her.
 
Wanted to claim her.
 
He’d even tried earlier and promised to return.
 
Zlaten killed her father and wanted her.
 
She couldn’t prove his evil ways.
 
She was being healed by a hand held med tech, from a wound he inflicted but unless the stranger came back it was a matter of Zlaten’s word against hers.
 
Hopefully, there would be enough to prove his guilt before he came back.
 
To finish what he started and kill her.

 
“I’m going to give you something for the pain.
 
I can’t give you much because it’s for tankipas and I don’t know how well it’s going to work”

“Thanks.
 
If I could handle it, I’d go without anything but even I am not that masochistic.”

What in the world were you doing in that alley?
 
Looking for Zlaten?
 
Hoping to find him and goad him into fighting you?
 
Jenala, what were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t looking for him.
 
He was stalking me.
 
Brenton, he didn’t attack me right away, though.
 
He showed me some papers.
 
It looked like Dad had signed them.
 
They said that if Dad didn’t pay back some loan that Zlaten would be able to have me, unless I was already married.
 
Do you know of this loan?”

Brenton hesitated, “He never intended for that clause to come to pass.
 
He always expected to pay off the loan long before now.”

“He would have claimed me had I let him, because he believes he has the right.
 
He doesn’t.
 
I don’t care what those papers may say, I will never be claimed or marry the man who murdered my father!”

“You’re father would not have wanted you to.
 
It was the only way he could get the money to start the mine.
 
It was twenty years ago.
 
He thought he would have plenty of time to pay it all back.”

“Zlaten got too close, I didn’t have Lottie to protect me so he thought he could get away with raping me to ‘seal the bargain’, he said.
 
Thanks to that stranger he was wrong.”

“Thank Krios for that.
 
You must be more careful.
 
And…you will have to marry someone else if you are to avoid having to marry him.
 
If he takes those papers to the law, they likely will be upheld.
 
The only way out is if you marry before he claimed you.
 
Your father wanted you to be able to follow your heart.
 
He wanted you to marry for love.
 
Now you’ll have to hurry and marry someone to avoid Zlaten.”

“Don’t lecture me, Brenton.
 
I’m thinking and hurting and wishing my father had told me of this long ago. Hell, would you rather that I’d just given over to Zlaten?
 
Let him rape me in the alley?”

“No, of course not.
 
Your father would have flayed me as open as you are if I thought that for a minute.”

“He’s bold, bolder than he’s ever been.
 
Why didn’t he show me the papers long ago?
 
Never mind.
 
He knows that I know he killed my father.
 
It was too soon after the attack.
 
But he’s bold now.
 
Like he doesn’t care who knows he killed Dad.
 
He wants the mine and if he can’t marry me, he’ll kill me.
 
That’s the only other way.

“I don’t know if I’ll survive another attack.
 
And he will return.
 
I can’t do this alone.”
 
She winced at the reseaming of the flesh on her back.
 
“I need help.
 
Do you know of anyone worthy?
 
Worthy enough to marry?
 
Oww.”
 
She looked over her shoulder and watched as he waived a hand held device over her wound.
 

“Sorry.
 
Quit moving.
 
Let the med unit do the work.
 
How do you expect me to do this if you talk with your hands like you usually do?
 
Plain old words will suffice, if you want me to finish this healing job.
 
This machine wasn’t made for use on humans so you will have a horrible scar.”

“I don’t care about the scar.
 
No one but me will ever see it.
 
I think your pain killer is wearing off.”
 
She was cranky and in pain.
 
And afraid.
 
Zlaten would have to kill her because that was the only way he was getting anything that belonged to her.
 
The Delasa Mine was hers.
 
Her father left it to her along with his considerable knowledge of sword play.
 
It was the only thing that had saved her this time.

“Brenton.
 
Who was the man who brought me in here?
 
Zlaten ran from him like he’d seen a ghost.”
 
She tried not to flinch as the wand he used did its work.
 
It would seal the wound completely though unlike a full size med tech, the interior injury would take longer.
 
She would have a couple of days of pain then she’d be better.
 
She’d still have to change the bandages once per day.
 
They were there to provide support for the new scar as much as anything else.