every blade in my body is wanting to burst free. They are threatening the life of the woman I love, and all the hatch-bonding in the world is not going to stop me from defending her.
“No. That is a decision we have all made,” Tusk says. “We have been talking, Warden. You are no longer living up to your name. You are not acting as guardian to our brood. You have become the human’s mate, rather than our first hatched.”
“This is how you all feel?” I look around my gathered brood. These warriors have given me their unquestioning obedience our entire lives, but the human has driven a wedge between us all. She didn’t mean to. She couldn’t help it. It was my reaction to her which set these events in motion. But even if I had not fallen for her. Even if I had not taken her as my mate, we would not be allowed to kill her just because it turned out she captained the ship which attacked Saya’s vessel.
“We are a prison,” I remind them before they can answer. “We are jailers. We are not executors.”
“Then jail her. Don’t fuck her. Don’t keep mixing fluids with her. At the very least, you owe us that.”
I have to choose between my brood and my mate. It shouldn’t be a choice. Among scythkin, there is only one thing. The brood. Especially for a first hatched. We are born with power, and also responsibility. I owe these scythkin my life. I owed Saya my life.
They are right. We have the perpetrator. According to scythkin tradition, we kill her and we avenge Saya’s death. It should be simple. But it’s not. At least, not in the direction they want it to be simple. They are accusing me of having switched my allegiance, and they are right. Silver is my mate, and I will defend her with my life.
“He’s a traitor,” Scizzor says, advancing upon me.
I should fight, but I don’t want to hurt him. Even if I were to beat every single one of them into submission, it would not make Silver any safer. I can see the death in Scizzor’s eyes. He is prepared to die to avenge Saya, and so are the others.
I don’t have a choice in what I’m about to do, but I also know that what I am about to do is absolutely unforgivable in their eyes. I step backwards, not forwards as I should. I disengage from the conflict, and then I run for the door, issuing my bridge-command code to lock it.
I see dents appearing on the outside of it as they slam into it. They will tear their way out of there soon enough, of that I have no doubt. I have just enough time to get Silver, and do the one thing a scythkin never does: run away.
Silver
Warden bursts through the door, polite, but harried.
“Thank you for looking after her, Ham. We will look at a reduction in your sentence for helping us.”
“What’s going on? Why did Scizzor grab me?”
My questions sound pathetic and all too trite. I know something is deeply wrong. I know I have been very close to death once today, and still may be again. His face, always foreboding, is utterly grave. For a moment, I wonder if he has come to take care of me himself, get rid of the human who does not deserve to live.
“We have to go.”
“What’s happening?”
“They’re coming for you.”
“Who is coming for me?”
“My brood.”
“But they’re the people keeping me imprisoned. Your jailers can’t come for you.”
“They can when they’ve been stirred up by a…” he pauses. “It doesn’t matter. We go now. Come.”
I do as he says, following him out of the cell. I half expect him to put cuffs on me, but I guess there’s no need for shackles when you’ve thrown your prisoner’s door open anyway. I’m excited by the freedom, but…
“ARRRGHHHH!”
A fearsome cry from a half-dozen throats echoes through the ship’s halls.
“What the fuck is that?” I curse the question.
“RUN!” Warden grabs me by the hand and drags me in his wake as he pelts through the halls as if all the devils of hell were chasing us.
I think they are. The ship is ringing with the heavy, aggressive footfalls of scythkin warriors. It doesn’t take much to work out that they are chasing us. Me, I could understand, but Warden? He’s supposed to be a captain. Punctuating the sound of feet slamming on metal are the grunts and