Beauty and the Fleet (Intergalactic Fairy Tales Book 2) (24 page)

Alice handed her the sword, and nodded an acknowledgment of Beatrix's right to kill this monster. As her hand seized the grip of the sword, a calm lassitude spread through her limbs. Her thoughts were clear like they hadn't been in years. She didn't stab down at the Anthrak queen, no matter how satisfying it would have felt. That would just bring more harm to a creature who was suffering like the Leothen. This building creature deserved to be left to its own life, assuming it survived being freed from the queen leech. She had to give the building its best shot. Beatrix carefully slid the blade beneath the Anthrak queen, took a steadying breath, turned the sharp edge toward the ceiling, and pulled it through the tough grey flesh.

There was a spray of dark red blood and then a resounding shriek from the creatures that surrounded them. A moment later, the entire facility began to tremble. The spiders and fish creatures fled toward the ramps, leaving only corpses behind. Among the corpses were all the limp bodies of the Anthrak, no longer wriggling and grotesque. They were just lifeless globs of black flesh. She had suspected they would all die when the queen was killed. It was something entirely different to see it. She thought she would feel some remorse for wiping out a species, despite what she'd told Torch. Now that it was done, she felt only relief. Their death meant that her father was avenged, and that the Leothen and who knew how many other races were free. Or dead. Her thoughts turned to Arryn unbidden. She wanted to get back to him, to see if he had lived when his leech died.

"It's done?" asked Torch, only a dozen paces away.

"It is," said Beatrix. She handed Alice her sword, though she doubted they would need it. Her feet were already moving toward the exit.

"Then let's get the hell out of here," replied Torch. "It's getting dark in here."

Beatrix looked up and saw that the glowing creatures on the ceiling were fleeing as well, taking their dim green light with them. The building rumbled, a clear sign of its displeasure. It had survived the Anthrak and it wanted them out. Beatrix felt the same way. "Lets get back to the ship as quickly as we can," said Beatrix.

The surrounding throng continued to ignore them in their headlong rush down the ramps. It was hard to get off on the next floor below because of all the pushing. Alice's sword, while no longer aiming to kill and maim, still provided them with enough space to avoid being trampled. Light was still pouring in through the gaping hole they'd shot in the side of the building, allowing them to find their way back to the ship. They didn't encounter any opposition along the way.

There were a few spider corpses scattered around the ship. One of them hung partially inside the loading door. "It's us," called Torch. "Don't shoot."

"Finally," shouted Gadget, the beam of his flashlight shining through the gap.

Hands pushed the broken door from inside while Beatrix and Torch pulled from outside. The crack opened enough to allow them to squeeze through. Beatrix was the first inside, her eyes scanning the passenger area until they locked on the large forms of Arryn and Woolly. It was too dim for her to make out their health. She thought she saw movement in the shadows, but couldn't be certain. Her feet were afraid to move forward and find out if she'd killed them.

"How are we going to get out of here now that you've destroyed our only ship?" asked Gadget. He looked squarely at Beatrix, his face framed in the beam of the flashlight.

"Oh, would you shut up?" growled Woolly. "You've done nothing but whine since we broke atmosphere."

Beatrix let out a wobbly cry. It was a sound of elation, strangled by the tightness of worry in her throat. Woolly was alive. "Arryn?" she asked, her feet moving once again.

"Beatrix," he replied. His voice was soft and warm in a way that it never had been before.

Beatrix stepped up next to his seat, and was finally close enough to see him clearly. His smile was bright, though tears tracked down his dark cheeks. She looked into his luminescent yellow eyes and then just above them. Instead of finding the dark Anthrak flesh pressing into his forehead, there were only two pink marks that would soon turn into dark scars. "You're free," she said, her hand hovering in the air before him.

"Yes," he said. "Finally." He hung his head. "It's been so long, and I've lost so much."

Beatrix watched her hand as it crossed the space between them. She'd never willingly touched Arryn, but he was no longer the beast from her nightmares. He was a friend in pain. The hair on his cheek was soft and silky, not at all bristly like she'd imagined it. "There is at least one thing you've gained," she said, before she could think better of it.

Arryn returned his gaze to hers again, the confusing tide of his emotions finally spilling over toward joy. "I have?" he asked tentatively, pressing his face into her hand.

For all the seriousness of the moment, it reminded her of her cat, Josh, on the few rare occasions when he wanted attention. She laughed, and saw a glint in Arryn's eye just before the corner of his mouth turned up into a half-grin. "Yes, silly, you've gained a friend."

"Well, if we're done with the happy reunion, we should be getting the hell out of here," said Hands, a teasing smile on his face. "You think these two are safe to unshackle?"

"Absolutely," replied Beatrix, holding out her hand for the key.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

The trip out of the hive was without incident. Woolly took the lead and Arryn brought up the rear. Their intimidating physical presence was enough to keep the fleeing monsters mostly at bay. Beatrix took the spot directly in front of Arryn and found herself watching almost constantly over her shoulder. His movements were fluid and controlled, never applying more effort than was necessary. The more she watched him, the more she saw how much of him had been subsumed by the Anthrak, even while it only had partial control of him. He was quick to smile and even faster to tease.

"If you don't watch where you're going, you'll hit your head," said Arryn, having noticed her frequently looking his way. "These ramps weren't exactly built with beings of our size in mind." He had to walk with his shoulders perpetually hunched, his head bent.

"Our size? I'm tall, but I'm no giant like you," retorted Beatrix. "And these ramps weren't built at all. This hive is a living being. Shouldn't you have known that?" She tapped her head, referring to the knowledge that she still possessed from her brief contact with the Anthrak hive mind.

A shudder rippled through his body. "I've spent over a decade trying to push that thing and its thoughts out of my head. Now that I'm physically free, I'm keeping my distance from them as much as possible."

They stepped out into the open and surveyed the devastation around the hive. There were Anthrak corpses covering the ground and littering the river like an oil spill. The creatures boiling out of the hive paid them no attention as they bolted to the forests like startled prey animals. There were several piles of burning, twisted metal that indicated where ships had crashed after the Anthrak had died. At the edge of the clearing to their left was a ship that was very similar to the one they had arrived in. It was far enough away that she had a hard time making out the shapes milling around it, but judging by the look on his face, Arryn didn't have the same trouble. His smile was so fierce that it bordered on scary.

That's when it hit Beatrix how long and hard the road to recovery would be for the Leothen. They had been a people locked away from their own bodies and thoughts for over a decade. They would wake to find that many of their loved ones were dead and their society was completely destroyed. They would have to rebuild from scratch. Nedra, on the other hand, could simply stop fighting and go about their lives. The only lives that would change with any real significance were those in the Crown Fleet. Like hers.

She didn't know what life would look like in the Fleet without a war to fight, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She hadn't joined out of some sense of duty to her planet, though that had come later; she had been in it for revenge. Now that she had her revenge, she wasn't sure what she wanted for her life.

Beatrix watched the rest of their party as they trekked across the field of Anthrak bodies, toward the Leothen and their ship. Woolly and Arryn outpaced the rest of them, their long legs and eagerness eating up the distance in no time. Beatrix noticed Arryn look back at her more than a few times, and she wanted to tease him about it. The smile on her face was completely inappropriate, given that she was wading through the corpses of a race she had just destroyed, but she couldn't help it. She found her thoughts wandering back to the library in that impossibly beautiful house on the Leothen's planet. There were still so many books she hadn't read. Maybe Arryn would let her borrow some. She shook her head at the thought. That just didn't seem right for some reason.

When they met with the three Leothen who controlled the ship, it was a joyous reunion for Woolly and Arryn, full of hugging and hands clapping on backs. They didn't know the men, but their shared experience brought them together in a way nothing else could have. Introductions were made and Beatrix promptly forgot their names. Her head was too full of other thoughts to hold onto new information.

Arryn made sure to tell his new friends that the Nedrans were responsible for their freedom, which led to crushing hugs that Beatrix and her friends tried to accept with grace. Gadget, surprisingly, was the most accepting of their new companions. He was a complicated man. Alice held herself apart, constantly looking up at the sky with a distant expression.

Beatrix was going to ask her about it, but Torch interrupted.

"It's time to get back to the Co—Leothen planet," said Torch. "That's going to take some getting used to."

"Arcata," one of the newcomers said. "Our home is called Arcata." Pride was clear in his voice.

"Arcata then," Torch amended. "Then I suspect we'll need to hurry back to the Fleet."

He was right. They had a lot of work ahead of them. She was glad it was Torch's job, and not her own, to explain to command how their war was over.

They were ushered into seats in the passenger compartment. Everyone was in a hurry to leave. The Leothen's excitement to return to their home world was catching. Woolly went up to take the pilot's seat, but Arryn settled in next to Beatrix.

"I thought you'd want to be up there," she said, waving to the cockpit.

"They have it handled," he said through a small smile. He was silent while they took off and broke out of the planet's atmosphere. When the ship leveled out, he picked up a conversation from a lifetime ago, as if they were still in the middle of it. "So,
Moonage Daydream
is the first in a series, you know."

They talked about books until they fell asleep, heads drooping in their chairs.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

When they broke atmosphere at Arcata, the Leothen had been free of Anthrak for most of a day and it was obvious there would be a big adjustment period. Everywhere Beatrix looked, there was smoke billowing from Colarian grey buildings. Some of the fires had spread to original Leothen buildings and people were gathered, trying to quench the flames. The Leothen were reclaiming their planet, but things were getting messy.

Their ship landed in the same field they had departed from a few days ago. The evidence of their gunfight was everywhere. The house in the distance was reflecting the purple and orange sunrise.

"It's so beautiful," said Arryn. He'd been quiet and solemn since they'd woken a few hours before.

"You've probably seen it like that a thousand times, haven't you?" asked Beatrix.

The rest of their group disembarked, each of her friends giving her a significant look as they passed. Beatrix wasn't sure what they meant, but they gave her a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. They'd left her alone with Arryn, searching out places to rest. The plan was to catch up on sleep on Arcata, and then head back to Nedran air space.

"I have," said Arryn. "It never gets old."

Beatrix looked around, trying to see the place with a fresh perspective. Knowing that she wasn't a prisoner allowed her to see the forest and its orange-tinted leaves, the rolling hills, and the mountains in the distance. She was able to truly appreciate them for the first time. Arcata was a beautiful place. It reminded her of her childhood home. It was the first time she could remember thinking of home without an ache in her chest. The idea of leaving that kind of beauty for more confinement on a spaceship made her skin crawl. "I had an idea," she said, the words coming out before she realized she was speaking.

"Oh no," said Arryn, his grin finally returning.

Beatrix slugged him on the shoulder and then crossed her arms. "Fine. I'll just keep it to myself." She turned and followed after the others.

"Beatrix, wait," said Arryn, catching up to her in an instant. "I was only teasing. Please tell me."

Beatrix was shaking with laughter when she turned to meet his gaze. "You really are an easy mark. That's never going to get old."

"Never?" he said, one brow quirking up.

"Yeah. That was my idea." She looked away. "I thought I could stay here for a while. This place is going to need some real help, and someone to handle relations with Nedra." Beatrix turned her gaze down to the path, waiting for the rejection to come. She'd killed so many of his people. He had to know that. There was no way he would want her around. "Assuming I'd be welcome," she added.

"That would be acceptable," said Arryn, his tone unreadable. "On one condition." He'd gone back to looking grim.

Beatrix's excitement died as quickly as it had come. Their conversations about books seemed silly and inconsequential in the face of the task of reconstructing Arcata. He probably wanted her to stay away from him so that he could more easily concentrate on the task at hand. "What is it?" she asked glumly.

"That you stay in your old room, let me cook you breakfast every morning, and talk to me about the books you read the night before." He was laughing before he finished his last sentence.