The Claiming of a Virgin King (2 page)

“
That doesn’t change the
fact that the Island fortresses are part of my kingdom,” William
said. “Lord Dragan and his people are there by my
leave.”

A pause and then, “Really,
William?”

He slammed his fists down on the
table, frustration now bubbling to the surface. “Damn it. That’s
the way it should be.”

“
It
should
be, yes,” Niahm said. “But
nothing is really as it
should
be ever since our visitors arrived from the
stars. They did more than stir up the planet and cause the great
storm, they have changed everything.”

“
Changed…” William shook
his head. “If only it was that simple.” He paused, the pounding in
his head increasing, the churning in his gut making him tense all
over. “Changed does not even begin to describe what their arrival
has done to us. You know, father always feared the southern clans
would turn on him. He kept a careful eye on them, waiting for the
day they pushed against the capital. He never expected our enemies
would come from above, or that they would be people from another
world.”

Niahm shrugged slightly. “The stories
say that their own home was destroyed. That they had no choice but
to find another.”

“
I wish it had not been
ours.”

“
We all do.”

William walked over to the
window opposite the one he had last been looking out of. This
one
did
show the
north, and though right now all he could see was the peaceful
capital, he knew what was beyond it.

The aliens were making the north
theirs, taking the villages, enslaving whatever humans remained,
and there was nothing he could possibly do about it, not on his
own, not with just his people. William needed access to the same
technology that the rebels had, more than that though he needed
someone that they feared.

Dragan…

“
We cannot win this war
without Dragan’s help,” he said slowly. “We have tried for the past
five years, and we have failed. He is our last hope.”

“
He is our
only
hope,” Niahm said.
“Sooner or later the rebels will reach the capital. The energy
barrier will fail if they attack it repeatedly. They will breach
it…and when they do…”

“
We will not be able to
stop them.” William paused. “And if Dragan will not meet with my
messengers…there is no other choice.” He took a deep breath. “I
will have to go myself.”

“
William…” Niahm breathed.
“You cannot. The risk is too great.”

“
Risk?” William asked,
turning away from the window and locking eyes with his most trusted
friend. “What of the risk of the aliens rampaging their way around
the capital? Can you imagine what they will do once they move
south? Once they see the riches we have hidden there? What about
when they take the whole country? Take all of our people? It is my
job to protect them.
That
is why I am king. To keep my people safe. I
cannot allow them to fall when it is in my power to do
otherwise.”

“
I know this,” Niahm
whispered. “But the journey…the risk…the new moon
approaching…without you we have no one. You have no heir. Who will
lead if you fall?”

“
If I fall we all do,”
William said. “I do not say that because of any arrogance, but
because it is true. The court will never stand up to the rebels.
They will lie down and do as they are told. And my generals?” He
shook his head as he thought about what was left of those brave men
and women. “They will be overwhelmed. And they too will
fall.”

Niahm stepped forward then and took
William’s hands in hers. He allowed it because that was their
relationship. They were comfortable enough that such gestures were
the norm. “I know,” she said. “I know it is all down to you, and I
am sorry for that. You never wished for this.”

William thought of the moment his
father had died. Of how it had felt to know that the fate of an
entire world now rested on his shoulders.

Panic.

Horror.

Acceptance.

He remembered it all.

“
My wishes are irrelevant
in the end,” he said slowly. “I am king.”

“
And Dragan?”

“
Will be my general,” he
said, and he squeezed Niahm’s hands. “There is no other choice now,
and if going to the island fortresses is what it takes to make that
happen, then that is what I will do.”

Chapter Two

Lord Dragan walked along the docking
port and cast his eyes over the ships tethered to the docking
system. They were in the middle of their morning preparations.
Checking their energy crystals were charged, that their nets were
loaded, and their supplies secured. Soon, when those perpetrations
were complete, they would all head out, gliding above the icy
waters around the islands and catching whatever fish were swimming
in their midst.

Dragan hoped they would catch more of
the pink fish that he liked. He understood that the fish were only
pink because of some of the other life forms they ate, some sort of
chemical that changed their flesh as they matured. He wasn’t
completely sure how it all worked, but then Dragan had never lived
on a planet where the oceans teemed with life and the bigger fish
ate the smaller, and those on land ate them. It was an alien
concept to him. Much of what happened on this planet was, and
yet…

He inhaled deeply. The
salt in the air bit the back of his throat in a satisfying way that
Dragan was sure he would never quite get used to.
This
was one of the
reasons why Dragan came down to the docks every morning. From this
spot he could inhale not only the clear, cold air, but see all of
his islands surrounding him. He wasn’t sure of the exact number,
and not all of them were inhabited, but
Rejvac
, the island he stood on now,
was not only the largest, but was perfectly placed in between the
mainland and the rest of the islands, almost like a sentry. Because
of that Dragan had made it his capital, and he was very satisfied
with it.

He nodded at that thought and
continued his walk along the docks. Several of his people greeted
him as he passed, and he paused to share a word or two with them.
They were in good spirits, happy to be busy. That pleased Dragan.
He understood at a basic level that his people needed an occupation
in their lives to give it meaning, and one of the first things he
had done with his new land-faring society was to put a structure in
place that allowed that. Every one of Dragan’s people had something
that they and they alone were responsible for. It could be
something as simple as tilling the land, or something as complex as
working on the power crystals, but it all came together like a
puzzle, each piece as important as the other. Here, on the islands,
everyone was valued, everyone was needed, and Dragan intended to
ensure it would always be that way.

He smiled, pleased as always with the
society he had created. A society that he had pieced together from
the remnants of what had once been a great number of
people.

All lost now…

His smile slipped as that thought
slithered through his mind, and in an effort to dispel it he turned
away from the dock and looked out at the view in the other
direction. At this time of morning the eastern oceans seemed to be
wrapped in an icy mist and that mist inched its fingers towards the
land. But it had only inched so far. Dragan could still see the
majority of his capital island, from the twinkling lights of the
main town, nestled in embrace of the mountains, to the smaller
towns out on the open plains, and those running all the way down to
the coast.

And beyond that…shrouded for now…the
mainland.

He sighed slightly as he considered
that.

The mainland…

It was the only thing that marred the
life he had created on these islands. The only real problem in an
otherwise comfortable existence, certainly more comfortable than
Dragan had ever imagined it would be when he had set off on his
journey away from the planet that had once been his
home.

Dragan frowned slightly, unsure why
his thoughts seemed determined to head in that direction today.
Perhaps it was because of the decision he had so recently made?
Because of all the issues, and all of the work, that decision had
created?

He shook his head. Because there was
little point in thinking about that now. Little point in
questioning it. It was already in motion. Instead he began to walk
across the dock and around to the road that his people had laid in
the first weeks of their arrival on the islands. It linked the east
to the west, the main town to the surrounding ones, and Dragan
enjoyed making his way along it each day.

His land craft was waiting for him. He
jumped inside, laid his palm against the crystal interface and set
off, the system automatically calculating his route for him. All of
their tech worked in that way. It interfaced directly with their
DNA and did their bidding however they required. It was both a
blessing and a curse really. A blessing because it meant that the
natives could not make use of it, but a curse because the rebel
aliens could…

Dragan moved his palm from the
interface and settled back to enjoy the journey back to his home.
It wouldn’t take very long, not at his current speed, but still it
left him time to think. Dragan spent that time thinking not only
about the various jobs he had to do today, but also those that he
would have to do in the coming days. The new moon was fast
approaching, and that left little time for all the preparations
that would be required.

That too was something new for Dragan.
Before landing on this planet, before he had made the decision to
make these islands home for his people, they had lived their lives
based on the days and the seasons the crystal system created for
them. It was an artificial construct based on the length of what
had once been a day or a season on their home planet. But down here
their day was longer, and their seasons were based on the phases of
the moon. There was no choice about that really because those
phases dictated much about their home. When the seasons would
change, which fish would be swimming in the waters, what animals
would be hibernating.

The next moon phase heralded the
arrival of the deep winter, and Dragan was eager to ensure his
people had whatever supplies they needed in place before that
winter arrived. He had lived through five of them already and knew
how brutal they could be.

Were they equally as brutal on the
mainland? That thought came out of nowhere, and Dragan found his
gaze straying back to the mists of the eastern seas.

Despite the fact that he
had never stepped foot on the mainland, Dragan knew that it was the
only land mass on this planet that was welcoming to life. The
other, slightly larger land mass, was hostile in the extreme. The
natives called it
The
Shadows
, and Dragan had always thought
that apt. His early surface scans had shown it to be a great
expanse of ice with treacherous crevices and razor sharp mountains.
The mainland was the only place that was habitable, that food could
be grown on, and the seas fished for their bounty, and because of
that it was home to almost all the natives of this
planet.

Of course, that hadn’t
always been the case. Those same early surface scans had shown
Dragan that there had once been a much larger land mass that
connected the mainland, the islands and
The Shadows
. But the southern polar
cap had melted for some reason and much of that old land mass had
ended up below the icy oceans. Only the northern polar cap
remained, and that connected to
The
Shadows
, keeping that place in a state of
perpetual cold.

It was no wonder a war was
being raged on the mainland. Because there was
nowhere
else on this planet for
either the natives or the rebel aliens to go.

This was it.

As good as it got.

And once again, as he so often was,
Dragan was grateful that he had reached the islands before Maylor,
the leader of the rebel aliens, had done so. Had that not been the
case, would he be the one warring with the native king? Dragan
considered that as he entered the main town and zoomed over to his
home. He didn’t have long to think it through though, because
someone was waiting for him at his front door.

“
Dragan?”

He stepped out of his land craft and
walked over to the male calling his name. “Lei? To what do I owe
the pleasure?”

Lei, leader of the eastern coastal
town, sighed. “We may have a problem.”

Dragan gestured to his door and Lei
followed him inside. It was noticeably warmer once they were under
the four walls that made up the greeting room, and Dragan shivered
because he hadn’t realized just how cold it had been down the
docks, not wrapped in his cold-weather clothing. But there could be
no doubt now, winter really was coming.

“
A problem?” he asked once
he removed his outer layer of clothing. Lei did the same. “Speak of
it.”