In Enemy Territory - Shannon West Page 0,59

least some of the treacherous bastards, though, before they tore his disruptor away.

The only light was dim and uncertain and came from a narrow window high up on one of the walls. Ryan looked around himself warily, but there was only this empty room and no sign of Mikos. He leaned his back against the nearest wall, rubbing his eyes and hoping to clear his head. Where was Mikos? He couldn’t give in to the fear that was settling inside him like a block of ice, making his hands tremble and tears stream down his cheeks. These people had already been foolish and reckless enough to attack the Crown Prince of Tygeria and his crew. Who knew what else they might be capable of?

They had come to this backwater planet tracking the members of an Assassins’ Order, and now these people had attacked them and Mikos was missing. Were these the assassins? Had they already taken control on Gatifrey and had they murdered his husband? Was Mikos’s warm, brown flesh already lifeless and pale? Ryan had stroked that flesh just the night before in their cabin, and he had kissed his sweet mouth and whispered to him how much he loved him. He stuffed his fist against his mouth to stifle a moan. He couldn’t be dead. This was surely just his own mind torturing him with horrible imaginings and perhaps some vestige of the drugs they’d injected into him. But then, where was he? How could Ryan get to him?

The door suddenly opened and a figure in a gray robe stepped in, followed by three more. Ryan clenched his fists, stood up, and snarled at them. “Where is Mikos? What have you done with my husband?”

The first figure swept his hood off his face and stared at him curiously. It was a tall man past middle age, and his hair was a vivid white, but his thick eyebrows and pointed military mustache were black. He had high cheekbones, a sharply cut nose, a spare, dark face—the face of a man used to giving orders, the face of an aristocrat—with the bearing of a military officer. With narrow, contemptuous brown eyes he looked Ryan up and down. “You’re his human whore, then? The so-called Consort Ryan?” His accented words were hard to place, but Ryan thought he might have been at least half-human, unused to speaking Earthan.

Whoever or whatever he was, he was about to be strangled to death. Ryan was furious and wanted only to feel his hands around the man’s throat. “Answer my damned question!”

“All in good time. You don’t make any rules here.” He continued to sweep his gaze over Ryan and finally nodded. “Yes, I think you’ll do for my purposes. You aren’t as soft as I feared.”

“Where is my husband?”

“I said I’d tell you in my own time. You have no power here; is that understood?”

“If you harm him in any way, I promise you I’ll fucking kill you. Is that understood?”

“Well, you’re spirited, I’ll give you that. Good. My name is Ivanni Moreau, or as you might say, General Moreau. I am the Commandant of Gatifrey. So—now that we’ve been properly introduced, I do hope you won’t disappoint me later on. So often humans start off strong with a lot of bravado, but then by the end of our time together they’re weeping and moaning and crying. So tedious and predictable.”

“Where. Is. Mikos?”

He sighed with impatience. “Gods, you’re a single-minded creature, aren’t you? He’s unharmed and nearby. Does that ease your mind enough for you to listen to me?”

“Take me to him!”

“Oh, very well, since you can’t seem to concentrate on anything else, though I must say you’re being extremely tiresome.” He nodded at the figures behind him, and two of them came forward to seize Ryan’s arms and haul him toward the door. He decided not to struggle, so long as they really were taking him to Mikos. They escorted him out of the room and down a narrow corridor to a door that led outside to a small courtyard. It had grown rapidly darker since Ryan had woken and found himself in the little room with the dim light coming through the window. It wasn’t fully dark yet, but the gloom was evident under the trees and the jungle-like foliage that came right up to the edge of the small cleared area. A wind had sprung up off the sea that Ryan knew must be close because he could smell the tang