Ransom

“Astaria,” I sigh.

“Yes?” She opens her eyes just a fraction.

“You’ve killed another guard and hidden him under my bed.”

“Oh. Yes,” she says in a casual tone.

“You have to stop this,” I lecture her as she snuggles under my arm. “This is very poor for morale and besides, it’s probably wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“Yes. It’s wrong to kill.”

“You don’t believe that.”

I don’t believe that, which makes enforcing discipline somewhat difficult. I can whip her, but I will be doing so as a hypocrite and we will both know it.

“It’s wrong to kill people under my command, because I value them.”

“So right and wrong is determined by what you personally value?”

“Yes. Of course, yes. How else would it be determined?”

“By a set of stone-clad laws that stand outside species or culture and are always true anywhere in the universe.”

“When you find them, you let me know. Until then, no more killing on this ship, Astaria. Do you understand me?”

“I understand you.”

“Do you agree?”

“Do you want me to lie to you, Blackmane?”

“I want you to obey me.”

“Then you need to give me a reason to obey.”

I chuckle. “Your ravishment was not enough, princess? You need more reason? You want to find your pretty pussy strapped?”

“You wouldn’t. You like using me too much.”

That is preciously close to a challenge. I know I cannot keep ignoring these murders. The ‘he should have known better’ angle is wearing very thin. I am beginning to think that my own life is at risk. She knows the vulnerable spots of our powerful forms, and lying here in bed with her I am all vulnerable spots.

“You haven’t tried to kill me yet,” I murmur.

“No,” she says. “That would be a pity and a waste. Besides, who would look after me?”

I feel a flash of warmth at her confession. She thinks of me as looking after her. She has bonded with me. I am her protector.

“I intend to go to war with your father. It may come to pass that I take his life.”

“Good.”

Her response surprises me, not because I thought there was much love lost between the two of them, but because I expected even Astaria with her blunt, cruel demeanor would have some pretense of care for the one who fathered her.

“What happened between you two?”

“You mean, why was I locked away in a tower surrounded by traps?”

“Yes.”

“Part of it was possibly my fault,” she says. “But it is somewhat traditional to lock a princess away in a tower. I think that’s where he got the idea. Prisoners go in dungeons. Princesses go in towers. He threatened me with a dungeon once. Actually, he put me in one.” She smiles brightly with what I have come to realize is her remembering a particularly cool murder expression.

Astaria

“My mother wasn’t human. At least, not entirely. She was an alien my father captured when he took over the planet he’s on now. It didn’t used to be a human world, there were other creatures there. I've heard them called faye. There’s lots of stories about them, how they loved nature and married trees and…” I wave my hand because it’s very complicated and he doesn’t want to know all about that. He wants to know why I am the way I am.

“So at first, there were only a few humans on Kamelot. That’s what my father calls it now, but it was called something else way back when. He stole the name, just like he steals everything else. He’s derivative, you know?”

Blackmane makes a short grunting sound. I’m surprised he's still listening. In my experience, nobody listens for more than three or four sentences. If you speak for longer than two minutes, you’ve lost everyone. That’s why I prefer to stab first. Gets the attention and holds it.

“Very early on, some of the humans and the original species mated. And some of that blood got passed on over generations and finally some of it was violated by the man who forced me into existence against my mother’s will.”

“She was not willing?”

“She was a captive warrior. She had been leading attacks against the growing human population and their installations that covered all the wilds. I’ve heard that she warned him when he came to her that the result of their union would be an abomination in body and spirit. He didn’t listen. I was conceived and when I came into the universe, she left it.”

He is listening, his big alien body curled about me so he does not miss a single element of the conversation. He is watching my eyes intently. I wonder if he thinks I am lying, or if he is just very interested in my sad tale.

“I never knew my mother. All I know is that I was born in captivity, ripped from the womb of a dying prisoner, and I have always had appetites no normal princess has.”