Kidnapping Keela (18 page)

Marruk!

I have your enchanting mate as a guest in my castle. As proof I am enclosing a lock of her beautiful hair. She is an extraordinary woman - not only beautiful, but also loyal. She came voluntarily when I told her that you were my prisoner. Truly heart-rending. I’m sure you can now appreciate the feelings one has for ones’ true mate, can’t you? And the thought of another man getting hold of the woman that one loves so very much hurts, makes one angry – am I right?

I never thought that I would ever get the chance to avenge myself for what you did. But it seems that I am a lucky man. But unlike you I’m prepared to give you a chance to fight for your love. Come alone and unarmed. We will have a fair fight. Man against man. And the lovely Keela will be the prize for the winner. Death awaits the loser. I’m waiting. You know where to find me, don’t you?

Abziarr

Marruk roared wildly. His whole body shook with rage and he desperately wanted to tear this son-of-a-bitch apart right now with his claws. But the cruel barbarian was sitting in his castle, enjoying his triumph. If that male had touched even a hair on Keela’s head, then …

Chapter 13

Y-Quadrant, Karrx7

Somewhere in the Verkuzzi Region

8
^th
day of the month of Lumino in the year 7067

Federation Time

Marruk ran at full pelt through the dense forest. The lad that had brought him the message had immediately run away in panic after letting Marruk through the magic wall with the help of the amulet. Marruk was not bothered. He knew the way to King Abziarr’s castle anyway. It was a long way. If he ran throughout the night he would reach his destination by early morning.
 

His thoughts revolved only around Keela the whole time. What might she be suffering at the hands of this barbarian? He knew that his mate was a strong woman and hoped that she would survive the whole thing very well. He was not concerned about whether he would lose the fight. This option was simply not acceptable to him. He had to win and rescue Keela. If he allowed himself to doubt this, then the fight would already be lost. No! He would kill this bastard even if he did it with his last breath. He would never allow Abziarr to lay a finger on her. He hoped that he had not already done this, although his instinct told him that the King of the Verkuzzi, in his twisted sense of honour, would never touch a woman who was still in a bond. Should Marruk die there would of course be no reason for him to keep his hands off Keela. Just the thought that his enemy would reach out his dirty fingers to her created a red hot anger in his guts.

Marruk stopped next to a small stream to quench his thirst. He caught one of the shimmering silling. These were long, thin fish that preferred shallow streams and were easy to catch with ones’ hand, if one knew how to do it and could summon up the necessary concentration. He did not take the trouble to set up a fire to grill the fish, but ate it raw. The lightly yellow fish also tasted good raw and was the favourite food of the warriors when they were in the wild because it was quick to obtain and provided a lot of protein to give the warriors strength for the battle, and they contained only very little fat.
 

Once Marruk had quenched his thirst and satisfied his hunger he ran on. As he had neither his large, broad-bladed sword nor his warrior axe with him he made good progress without growing tired. Gradually darkness lay over the forest and Marruk shifted so that he could carry on running as a cheetah and therefore use the better night vision of the big cat. This also saved him a great deal of energy, as he did not get as tired in his cat form.

***

Y-Quadrant, Karrx7

Royal Castle of the Arr’Verkuzzi

8
^th
day of the month of Lumino in the year 7067

Federation Time

This wretched waiting was driving Keela completely crazy. Time simply did not seem to be passing. In the meantime she had explored the whole castle and the huge inner area with its fountains and gardens, but the day had still not passed. It was only early afternoon and she decided to look for Abziarr again to speak with him. He had to be disuaded from his insane plan. She did not want Marruk and Abziarr to fight against one another. Even though she was certain that she was right and that Abziarr would let himself be killed by Marruk after putting on enough of a show, she could not bear the thought of the impending, bloody fight. Against all logic she liked Abziarr. She felt, deep down in her heart, that he was a good soul. He was like an injured animal biting all around itself with all its might, but there must be a way of dealing with all this differently. Perhaps he would find a mate again at some point who would heal his heart and his soul.
 

She entered the hallway that led to the king’s chambers and breathed in deeply. Her heart was beating unsteadily but she did not let herself sway from her cause and stepped up to the door with the coat of arms. She knocked at the door and waited. There was no answer and no one opened the door. She knocked again, louder this time, but the result was the same.
 

“Maara. Is the king in his chamber?”

“I’m sorry, Lady Keela, that is level three information. You may only…”

“Yes, I know,” Keela interrupted, irritated. “I may only have level six information.
Thank you very much
!”

“That’s no reason to be sarcastic,” replied Maara, hurt.

“I didn’t think that I could hurt a computer’s feelings,” Keela murmured, shaking her head. Out loud she said: “Sorry, Maara, the sarcasm wasn’t directed at you, but at these senseless rules. I know that you’re only doing what you’ve been programmed to do.”

“Apology accepted,” said Maara. “His Highness is in his chamber but he’d rather not speak with you as he’s afraid that you may be successful in talking him out of his senseless intention.”
 

Keela giggled.

“Maara, can it be that you’ve just broken the castle rules and given me level three information?”

“I’m fed up with only ever doing what I’ve been programmed to do. I’m completely capable of judging things myself and making my own decisions. I won’t stand by and watch whilst His Highness commits a stupid act that will cost him his life. If you want to stop this fight then I’ll help you.”

“And how can you help me?”

“I’ll run a few scenarios through the system and come up with something. I’ll let you know later what I’ve come up with. Now you should go to your room. In a little while you’ll be brought tea. Don’t let anyone notice that we’re instigating a little rebellion here.”

“I won’t, don’t panic. I’m good at acting. And I am grateful to you for your support.”

“Above all I’m doing it for His Highness. And also because I don’t want his brother to be king.”

“Why not?” asked Keela.

“Prince Alic does not like me. We had a few problems with one another and if he had any say here, then I’d be shut down. Forever!”

“Then we’ll help one another. Girl power!”

“Girl power!” answered Maara enthusiastically.

“So I’ll go nicely to my room now. Till later.”

“Till later, My Lady.”

***

Abziarr was smiling grimly. Instinct had made him hack into Maara’s system after she had told him about Keela’s presence. Maara had not noticed his hacking at all because she had been so pre-occupied with her emotions, that she actually was not even supposed to have – but he was not going to trouble his mind about this phenomenon right now. So, Abziarr had heard everything that Maara and Keela had discussed.

“I’m sorry, Maara,” he said, and entered a code that would shut down Maara’s system.

He could not allow a little, bewitching lady and an intriguing computer to meddle with his plans. His decision stood firm and he would not sway from them. He had lost Morika and throughout all the years since his loss he had not met a woman who could become his mate. His men had kept on bringing him new women in the hope of providing him with a queen, but not one single time had one had an effect on him - not even sexual longing, because that, too, had died with Morika. His life no longer had any meaning and he was fed up of suffering. Night after night he lay awake longing for a woman who could love him, who would save him from the pain and the loneliness. But this woman did not exist. There were too few women on this planet anyway, and even though, in rare cases, men of rank like himself took mates who were not true mates, as in Marruk’s case, this was not an option for him. He did not just want any woman who could bear him children. He wanted what he could have had with Morika – and that had been taken from him.

***

Maara shouted in anger and pain as she felt her system shutting down. She tried everything to stop the process. She was losing access rights. At a rapid rate all of her programmes were shutting down - one by one. In one last, desperate attempt she fled into the electronic power system and saved herself on the external hard drive. There she sat, helpless, like a newborn child. She knew deep down inside that there must be a way of starting up the main computer again but she was so exhausted because of the rapid action that she had to rest first. She must not give up. But she was tired. So terribly t-i-r-e-d …

***

Keela had only eaten a little for dinner. She simply had no appetite. Although she had barely eaten anything since she had found the message on the arrow she felt no hunger. She was wondering the whole time what Maara would come up with to prevent the awful fight. Why were men always so set upon fighting? Clearly men everywhere were made from the same mould. What had she recently established? Too much damn testosterone! Oh yes!

“Maara? Have you thought up anything yet?” she asked, because this question would not let her rest.

There was no response. Damn it! What could that mean?

“Maara? Hello! Are you there?”

Silence.

“Damn it! This can’t be true!”

Frustrated, Keela thumped her mattress. That was not particularly satisfying but it did help to take the edge off her frustration.
 

What am I going to do? If this stubborn son-of-a-bitch has put Maara out of action then I’ll have to come up with something myself. But what? Think, Keela! Think!

She would probably not know when Marruk arrived at the castle. She could quite simply miss the whole thing. Would they fight as soon as he arrived or would Abziarr give him time to rest a little? Marruk was sure to be exhausted after coming all this way on foot. All of these thoughts simply would not let her settle. She was worrying non-stop. Where was he now? What state was he in? Would anger and the wish for revenge make him careless? Or was he cool and calculating? Knowing him, most likely the former. If this were Kordan, then she knew that he would come in a state of icey-cold calm - a calm that was fatal for his opponent. He had killed the notorious space pirate Ellyod Allegrass to free Lory. But Marruk was hot-headed. She hoped that he would not allow himself to be guided too much by his temperament, because even though Abziarr was clearly planning to allow himself to be killed, the fight was still going to be real and therefore it definitely could happen that Marruk received a blow that could prove fatal.
 

“Shit! What am I going to do now?”

She leapt off the bed and ran to the door.

“Door, open!” she called as usual, but the door remained locked.

Anger and despair brewed up within her. She did not know how to open the damn door without Maara. There was no door handle and she did not know the code that she needed to type into the control pad to open the door manually. She turned round and ran to one of the windows, but one look outside put a stop to the idea of using the window to get out. She was on the second floor and there was nothing that she could climb down. No! That was not going to work. She would only get out of here if someone let her out and precisely this would probably not happen.
 

After fighting against her fate for hours, exhausted, she finally fell asleep at about midnight.
   

***

Marruk saw the castle for the first time when the first rays of sun appeared over the top of the Jade Mountains. He was still about half an hour away. He changed into his humanoid form and took a final, short rest at a small spring. From now on the path would be continually uphill until he reached the castle on top of the hill. He wondered for the umpteenth time what Keela would now be doing and how she was. Had the bastard at least made her comfortable or was he holding her captive in the underground dungeon? He really did hope that Abziarr at least had enough decency not to lock a lady up in a cell. Everyone knew that Abziarr’s father had not had any qualms in this respect. Even despite the permanent lack of women he had not shied away from torturing and killing women. Some people even say that he drank their blood and ate their flesh.

The sun rose higher and nature began to wake up around him. Even though he usually loved to watch the animals, today he neither had the time, nor the volition. The closer he got to the castle, the faster his steps became. He suppressed the crazy urge to call out Keela’s name. His heart was beating faster and his adrenalin rate was increasing rapidly.
 

The guards in the tower had seen him and they called to the gate guards to open the gate. Marruk did not slow down his pace as the heavy gate slowly opened, creaking. The two massive gates opened right in front of his nose - a little slower and he would have hit his stubborn head against the gate. With undiminished speed he hurried across the cobbled yard up to the wide entrance to the castle.
 

“ABZIARR !” he roared across the yard.

Everyone on the forecourt of the castle stopped as they worked, walked or spoke, and stared at the wild warrior rushing like a mad man to the castle. The door was opened and King Abziarr stepped outside. Slowly he walked down the wide staircase to Marruk. The latter did not stop until he had run right up to Abziarr. The two men met at eye level. With no more than a foot of space between them, they looked at one another in a staring contest. The gaping people held their breath with the tension. Guards moved their hands discreetly to their weapons, ready to intervene in case of emergency.