Brax Page 9

  Rygan shoved his men out of his way, and stepped forward, rage and anger bright in his mad eyes. "I will accept this farce of a challenge if it means you will finally die as you were supposed to. And when you are dead," he seethed. "I will dissect your mate and find out how she did what she did here this day. Then I will find out what makes her and the others compatible to the Tellox. If mates cannot be found I will make them and save the Tellox from extinction. Anyone who stands against me will die along with you."

  Dissect Ariel? Brax nearly lunged at the man right then and there.

  Farin, stepped in front of him before he could start a full-scale war at those words.

  "Easy Brax," he said those black eyes capturing his with unexpected power. "You have the challenge you wanted. If you kill him now it will be all out war on this bloody sand and few would survive. What will become of your females then?"

  It was not the threat of war that brought him to his senses but the sudden picture Farin painted of the three females he had just seen needing the Tellox males to protect them. Somehow, he knew that they would find a way to stay safe, even in the new universe they found themselves in.

  Ariel might not need him to keep herself safe, that did not mean he liked the idea of her out there without his protection. But his rage was exactly the reaction his brother wanted. He backed up, allowing his thoughts to cool, and his sword to remain in its scabbard.

  "You chose the wrong side Farin," Rygan sneered at the black-eyed warrior. "I told you long ago what would happen if you did."

  "And I told you," Farin said back, his voice nearly as dark and grim as the eyes he turned to Rygan. "Don't go so far into your twisted madness that you think you can come after me and mine.” He took a breath and reined in his temper. “Tellox do not stand by while females are struck down. If you are that far gone you need to be put down like the sick animal you are."

  Brax did not like the reminder that Ariel had been in true danger. It had never occurred to him that his brother would try to kill her, or he would have gone directly to her instead of the sands. His mistake could have gotten her killed. If Farin had not stepped in...

  But he smiled at his brother and spoke easily despite his rage, just because he knew it would enrage him in turn. "I have told you before you underestimate my mate, just as you have the others, you go after her and she will find a way to feed you your spleen." Brax shrugged feigning a calm he was far from feeling. "But I think I will end you today and save her the trouble." He looked beyond Rygan at the five men who remained of his personal guard still standing. Even Rygan could not think so few could take on Creeg, and his men, as well as Brax and his, not to mention Farin who was a great fighter in his own right. "Have your men stand down and we will do the same."

  Rygan smiled with a lot of teeth. His eyes suddenly turning sly as he made another one of those quick emotional transformations. The crazy bastard laughed. "Care to join me on the sands to die, brother dear?"

  Brax would have preferred to fight the enraged beast. And even then, he did not fool himself that his brother would be easy to kill. There was a reason he had been accepted as king so long ago and kept that designation despite his barely hidden descent into madness. He was a deadly adversary and a brilliant tactician.

  Brax knew he could very well die on the sand today, but at least he had the assurance that his mate would be with her sisters, and if all went badly, Creeg and the others would get her to safety. It was the best he could hope for in this situation. He gave one thought to his mate and then forced all thoughts of her from his head. In a fight with the deadliest Tellox that ever lived, he was going to need all his wits and attention to stay alive. But he would kill Rygan today, or he would die trying.

  Dissect his mate? Not the smallest chance would Brax allow that threat to stand.

  Since no one trusted the King’s guard, Morax and the rest of Creeg's Calvern were set to watch them while Creeg stood at the controls of the shield and watched for interference from the rest.

  Teleporting Brax and Rygan into the sand pit with an erected shield to keep the dragons out was quick enough, but before they could make that happen both men took the time to change into battle armor and as many weapons as they wanted or could carry. Since this was a challenge and not a punishment they would not be required to go defenseless into the sands. The shield would eventually be dropped allowing interference from the sand dragons, but they would at least have their personal armor and energy shields to defend them against attack.

  While the beasts were hard to kill and distracting, they could not get through the personal shields any more than they could the bigger one. But if the shield was somehow damaged in the fight. The dragons would finish whatever your opponent did not. There was a reason very few Tellox ever fought without serious cause. Challenge could easily result and that was never to be taken lightly.

  Brax centered himself on the hot sands as Rygan did the same across from him and behind a shield barrier. He could feel the heat of the sands radiating through the soles of his armored boots and knew that the sand itself was hot enough to burn and could be used as yet another weapon against him. If you were foolish enough to allow someone to throw sand in your face you could very well be blinded for the rest of the battle. He had never been the recipient of challenge, but he had watched the few that had happened over the years and knew the stories of sand that would blister if it contacted skin. It was also the reason gloves were added to the armor for challenge battles on the sand. Trying to grab sand in a naked palm could make the use of your hand painful, and that was never good. Not to mention if you fell to the ground the instinct would be to catch yourself. So, gloves were a must even if you had no intention of trying to use the sand yourself.

  He felt the whisper of the shield dropping and moved from centered to an overhead sword strike in one blur of a movement. He met his brother’s sword and he moved to the side, blade sliding over blade as Rygan did the same on the other side. They both turned as one and were on opposite sides from where they had started in the same sword hold as if it was a dance they had choreographed ahead of time. Swords clashed again as they both moved faster than the watching warriors could follow. Swords sparking and whirling in a dance of death that few could match. The battle was on.

  They flowed across the blistering sand, swords clanging. Rygan’s eyes were blazing cold deadly intent and Brax knew his were the same. As fast as they were moving in the fight, Rygan’s mind was calculating and planning even faster. Which meant that Brax would need to do the same.

  Then Creeg released the rest of the shields and the hot breath of the dragons was nearly suffocating as they were surrounded. They moved faster, parrying sword strikes, jumping over and around obstacles that would have tripped them and avoided the dragons as they rushed at them with teeth and claws hitting personal shields and sending up sparks when they managed to hit the blurs the warriors had become. The dragons could not get past the shields as the energy swords could, but they could still knock a warrior off balance, or into the very strikes he was trying to avoid. And occasionally they swarmed and either one or both battling Tellox would end up pummeled to the hot sand until they could throw the creatures off.

  Brax took a running leap over the swarming sand dragons and was met on the other side by his brothers raised sword. As evenly matched as they were in a fight it was going to come down to stamina. Eventually one of them would make a mistake. He had never seen his brother make a mistake in battle, but he had been king for years now, and was unstable to boot. While Brax had been fighting, first in the fight pits that made this one look downright tame, then against slavers and pirates. It had to give him an edge. At least that was what he was hoping for. So, they swirled around each other and the dragons and Brax watched and waited for his brother the mad king to make a mistake.

  Rygan, he knew, was doing the same.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Ariel was gratefully floating in the cool darkness and would have stayed there
for a while if she could. But something was buzzing around that kept distracting her from the peace.

  What was that? Why was it so familiar? Once the question was answered there was no way she could let it go. She finally admitted defeat and fought her way to consciousness, one painful inch at a time.

  ***

  "We have to do something," Sara said with an almost growl to the words.

  Megan petted the golden retrievers’ ears that were closest to her and fought to sound completely serene. Something she was not feeling. "I'm not sure anything we do at this point would not just distract everyone and get the men hurt." She could not blame Sara for her anxiety, she did not like the idea of Morax or any of the others down there against such odds as they had left them. If the Tellox decided to follow the king and fight the rest of them they could be killed while she sat there pretending to be fine with it.

  She was jostled a little on her precarious perch on the side of the hospital bed when Lucky the other golden nudged her for his own attention. He could feel her fear and nerves and was reacting to them by trying to get as close as possible. Unfortunately, there was no room for the large dog on the bed, let alone on her lap. She kept her butt on the seat with an effort and raised her other hand to the dog’s soft head. Sending him a wave of soothing energy so that he settled.

  Her eyes went to Ariel, who lay on the slim medic bed unmoving. The worry in her eyes coated her voice. "I only agreed to go the first time to get Ariel out. You know as well as I do that if we are there they will spend ninety percent of their attention and defense protecting us, and another five percent eliminating threats to us. They will not watch out for themselves like they need to, and honestly," Megan said raising her eyes to her pacing sister on the other side of the bed. "This feels like Tellox business. Something they need to settle amongst themselves. This does not feel like something we can help with. Or should help with. We aren't warriors and unless you think your telepathy will help in battle I'm not sure what us going back down there would help.

  "Your powers," her sister started but Megan interrupted her.

  "Are primarily over plants which will help not at all on a desert moon." She reminded Sara, then blew out a frustrated breath of her own. "I can maybe sing some of them to sleep but what will that help but draw out the battle? It's possible that in a few years I could influence the creepy dragon things in the pit, but they are not golden retrievers and I did not raise them from puppies, so I seriously doubt it. Even with the time I have had with the cats the travelers protect at our new home, I have only ever got them to sit with me, and they are intelligent beings, and I might add, not starving on a planet that barely sustains them. I don't think the dragons are going to be sitting at my feet while I sing any time soon." Megan shuddered remembering the brief feeling of desperate hunger of those crazed beasts. "More like my singing would be like ringing the dinner bell."

  Sara glared at her younger sister, but Megan just gave her patient eyes. Sara narrowed her own and stopped pacing to study her sister. "Why are you so calm? Even adding Brax and his men to the mix there are ten of them. Ten, against the entire Tellox and a sand pit of dragons. Dragons! Really?" Sara turned and started pacing again. She looked around at the ship they sat on. "There are blasters on this ship."

  "Which we don't know how to use," Megan reminded her. "And even if we figured it out, they are not exactly spread out down there. We would as likely blow everyone up at once if we tried it."

  Sara gave her sister another glare but could not argue when the same had occurred to her. She just felt so helpless. A feeling she absolutely hated but had experienced more than once since she had been taken from all that was familiar to her on Earth. She looked at Ariel again and chewed her lip. Something that she needed to remember not to do since she now had sharper teeth and pronounced canines. She tasted her own blood and nearly growled again. "They made us Tellox," she said motioning up and down at her changed physicality. "We are stronger and heal faster, not to mention we are just plain fast period."

  "And completely untrained in combat," Megan reminded her again, her own eyes going to the changes in both her sister and herself. Ariel's were new for them, and like Sara's and her own changes, there was an adjustment period to the differences in the sister she remembered as quite different. The golden shimmer of her skin seemed even more pronounced on Ariel, and her dark brown hair showed the streaks of gold like veins running through marble.

  She had yet to see her eyes, but she imagined like the rest of them, her natural color had taken on a golden glow and split pupil. Something that would be quite striking with the whiskey color of Ariel's natural eye color. Not that the color really mattered, they would both be happy with seeing whatever changes had occurred in her eyes, if she would just open them and wake up.

  Both she and Sara had over extended their own new powers since they were changed so they recognized the signs and knew that with a little sleep she would probably be fine, but still. This was all new to them, and Ariel had always been cerebral and different. They had no idea how her powers had manifested, other than that she had managed to somehow hold the shields around the Tellox in danger while the rest of them freed Brax and came for them.

  Even knowing why she was unconscious and expecting the changes since they had lived through it themselves, they still needed to talk to their sister and assure themselves that she was unharmed and still the sister they remembered, despite physical changes and awesome powers.

  "You know as arrogant and brilliant as she was with the gifts she had been given as a human, she could quite possibly now be a power driven megalomaniac bent on world domination." Sara mused making Megan laugh at the new twist to an old joke that Ariel would eventually try to rule the world.

  Megan smiled and answered as Ariel always had to the teasing accusation. "They should be so lucky."

  Sara smiled but did not roll her eyes this time at the familiar answer. Instead she said with low sincerity with a hint of the vulnerability she was hiding cracking her voice. "I know she is probably going to sleep for days after what she did down there with the shields, but I really need to see her awake and still Ariel."

  Megan sucked in a deep breath through her nose and tried to contain the emotions that wanted to burst from her eyes as tears. "Me too."

  "I don't know how either of you expect me to sleep with all the talking," their youngest sister grumbled before opening her eyes and glaring at them. "It's like a buzzing in my brain the way you two are going on and on."

  Megan and Sara both turned to the bed with equal looks of surprise and hope. Then Sara took in Ariel's disgruntled face and laughed, relief flowing through her at the familiar sight. "Well, if you did not push yourself beyond human limits so that you passed out from exhaustion we wouldn't have to harp at you."

  At the familiar argument between the older sister and the strong-willed younger sister, Megan laughed and felt the tears of relief coat her cheek. "Nice to see that some things never change."

  Ariel grinned then. "Yeah,” she said. "It is." She settled down and immediately her eyes started to close even as she cataloged the changes in her sisters. Like her they looked more Tellox than human, like they were themselves but gilded in gold. She was in the process of settling when her brain flared, and she sat up, the pain of the fast move causing her head to spin but she fought back the nausea and dizziness and glared around the room. "Where is Brax?"

  ***

  Teleporting to the surface of the overly hot moon left Ariel needing to lean on her sisters. Vertigo had her oblivious to what was happening around them until the dizziness passed and she was able to lift her eyes and really take in the sight before them. They were back on the command platform where she had done her best to kill herself, so it was no wonder the feel of the overwhelming heat and the scents of sand and blood made this moon her new least favorite planet. Then she caught the sounds of swords clanging, sand dragons screeching and knew that whatever Sara had thought about it being over
before they got here was wrong. The fight was still going on, and once she got past the wall of Tellox before her to see down into the pit she would be able to see it.

  Suddenly she was not sure she wanted to see what went along with the sounds she was hearing, but she gave herself a moment to steady her whirling brain and then all three sisters, one on either side of her stepped forward.

  Morax cursed when he saw who had teleported to them, his eyes going hot and hard as they landed on his mate and her sisters. He left the rest of the men to watch Rygan’s five and stormed over to them before they could get close to the edge of the pit. Creeg too was glaring at them from his place at the shield controls. He would not leave his post, as he would need to erect shields quickly if anyone tried to interfere.

  Sara met those angry glowing gold eyes and shrugged. Morax made it to them before they were anywhere near the edge and pushed all three of them back by simply spreading his arms and bodily stepping into them until they had no choice but to move back. Two of the women glared at him. His mate just looked resigned as she stumbled back until they were back where they had started.

  Ariel had to clutch at her sisters’ arms at the nausea educing movement, but she still managed to glare at Morax. "What do you think you are doing?" she snapped.

  "Keep your voice down," he snarled back. "If he hears you it would be as bad as smelling or seeing you, and he does not need the distraction. And keep your shields up so he does not realize you were foolish enough to come back here."

  Ariel firmed her lips stubbornly but kept them closed just the same. She tried to look around the big man but between him and their position she was not going to see anything. Logically she knew he was right, but the need to see with her own eyes how Brax was doing was nearly overwhelming. "How is he doing," she finally whispered.

  Morax studied her then looked at his mate, and after something unsaid passed between them he finally relaxed his stance marginally. "They are as evenly matched as any warriors I have ever seen. I think we have all forgotten what Rygan is capable of when he is not in the grips of his madness. And Brax? I have never seen another who could match him in battle." He looked at Sara then. "It is good that Brax forced the challenge between them before Creeg could. I did not think I would ever say this, but I do not think it is a battle that even Creeg could have won."