Book 5

Siha: Rise of Rakhana

Part III

"Silver and Fire"


Brother Grenald sits in a dark cloister, running the nib of a di'lean quill over some parchment flattened out on a desk, his sleeves sliding with a careful ease from years of doing so with the surprisingly light fabrics. Behind him the darkness is chased away in a small gap of a door, the th'ane ducking his head to step through.

"Announce yourself, Tisus," Brother Grenald tilts his quill and sets it down, turning in his seat to look at the stark, hulking figure in the sloping cloak running from square shoulders, "…You are to knock, remember."

"Yes, Brother Master," the low voice rakes out, "…You wished to see me."

"Close the door first…You are sloppy, Tisus. You will never catch Tetonbaum with such sloppiness."

The light disappears and the darkness immediately rejoins itself…The silhouette of the hunur th'ane comes forward to stand before Brother Grenald as he rises from his chair with a creak.

"Tetonbaum is with the fleeing," Tisus says quietly, "…They are heading towards Rakhana by accounts from the control center tracking the flight's pinged denials of communication. I can take a ship to intercept it before they reach the planet and go to ground."

"You will need to ensure the mother and the twins survive, but particularly the mother…She is necessary for negotiating with the Mechinist…and if I am right, we will need verification she has been seeded by Tetonbaum…The child they produce will be the future of Merce'des, you understand."

Tisus nods, his motion barely visible save for the glow of a buswax flame. "How will I know that she is?"

Brother Grenald shakes his head, tired of dealing with hunurs and their failed educations at the Isle of Tears, but their brutality and sometimes pawning loyalty to the offers of Merce'des potentially taking them back can lead to desirable results in missions they would prefer not to waste one of the highly trained th'anes in. "She will smell of it…The morthwyl in her gives off a scent…Tetonbaum was very specific about it when he was interrogated about finding her pregnant, before the twins were born. It is a powerful smell, arousing, and may inspire you to seed her yourself, but you will not do that. You are unfit to bear heirs, what with your failures, Tisus…We can give you to others to appease your appetite with, but this is to be certain—You will not sleep with the woman named Braith Shepard, now Braith Soterios, or whatever she takes on…Her name will change likely once she is on Rakhana."

"She will not be able to hide from me…Are the twins necessary as you say?"

"Yes…They are offspring of Casnar Soterios, a Tyrannus and a Sousan…And Ylyssus Tan'nanshul, an excellent th'ane who was led down a path of misfortune to set him where we desired him to be by the shards received from our donators long ago…Ylyssus is a former guardian of the Eye of S'syalahe, Eufemiusz Kiross…Beware of him, he may not look like much and act diminutive, but Kiross were ever clever and foully incorruptible…They are killers in their own genes, and devoutly steadfast to their women. And Ylyssus has some height to him…The Behedin were respectful of that."

Tisus remains silent, unwilling to acknowledge that any drell, regardless of th'ane status or history of the dragumios ( slayer of kings ) would ever be able to test his own violence and strength…

A hunter of hunters, he was not concerned by his prey.


Braith opens a cabinet and pulls down a mix of food in a container, her eyes cast down and a content expression on her face as she separates the cover and begins eating directly from the vessel itself. Ylyssus looks up from his place at a drop-down table from the wall, the twins with him and eating their own snacks. "Hungry, Lover?"

She turns, her eyes opening and looks at him from under the box, "…Maybe a little…I think this pregnancy is going to move a little faster, Ylyssus."

He looks forward, the twins sitting on his thighs and supported by either arm as they hold little ration bars to their mouths and gnaw and lick at the sugar and grains, "…How fast are we talking here, Braith?" His gaze returns to her still stuffing handfuls into her mouth.

Casnar pops his head in through the door and stares at her eating as she answers through a cheekful, "…By Kala—"

"I think maybe half the time it took for them…Something's definitely feeling different," she spits out some crumbs and the twins look up at her as Ylyssus stares at the floor where the food sprinkled onto the the lined panels. Jaspin and Jenner giggle and point, Jaspin suddenly opening his mouth.

"Mumma crumbs," he speaks for the first time. Casnar, Ylyssus, and Braith both snap their attention to the twin's freckled little patak as he brings his hand back to the food bar and repeats with his attention to the disintegrating corner, "…Mumma…She eat snackums."

Casnar smiles, "…First to speak," his gaze moves to Jenner, "…What's your story…Mumma says you can lift hoods."

Jenner's dark gray eyes move over Ylyssus's shoulder to his father, the bar of food in his mouth taking up too much space to try to say a first word or two.

"Be careful, Casnar," Braith wipes her mouth, "…He might flip you upside-down if you get cantankerous with him now."

"I never have been like that with either of them," he holds onto the frame, letting go as he comes through towards her and pins her to the counter with both hands either side her hips, "…You, however, I can get cantankerous all I want with, and you haven't flipped me yet..." He nibbles her cheek as she squeals and tries to hide from his ticklish lips.

Ylyssus chuckles, "…What are we going to name the new child…Tetonbaum's not going to name it, too, is he?"

Braith peers over at him from around Casnar's golden shoulder, her hands blocking him from getting frisky, "…I'm naming the kids, all of them…I think Tetonbaum will have to agree with whatever I come up with."

Rolling his jade-tiger eyes as he leans back, Jenner and Jaspin leaning their backs and tiny heads against his half-exposed chest under a partially zipped shirt, "…Yes, well, that is something I believe you may have to discuss with Tetonbaum. He will likely wish to name the child himself…His relationship with you is not the same as Casnar and I, Braith, but I think you don't need for me to tell you that."

Braith loops her arms over Casnar's neck, purring into the nook of her shoulder and jaw, his face buried in her sweet hair and the perfume of her scent—pregnant and all—intoxicating him, "…Maybe so, Ylyssus…I'll give him the courtesy of letting him know."

Jenner burps and looks at Ylyssus and Jaspin gazing across and down at him respectively, "…What do you say, Little One."

"Scuzi."

Casnar lifts his face from Braith's neck and looks over.


Jenner and Jaspin run through the bridge in their haste to make back into the cockpit, an interesting area of lights, screens, buttons, switches, and displays. Feron and Tetonbaum are there, and turn to the twins' arrival in their seats. Feron bends down and holds his hands out, Jenner and Jaspin both climbing with one foot each into his hands to then clamber up his arms to his shoulders and neck…Jenner makes his head and jumps across like a squirrel into Tetonbaum's lightning-quick hands, the high th'ane catching the springy child and cradling the full, delicate little belly in the cup of his big palms.

"Slow down there, Jenner," Tetonbaum chides him and releases one hand to wag a broad finger at the child's face, "…There may not be a hand next time to catch you." He raises Jenner to his shoulder and the child disembarks his palm to sit on the broad square of a seat…Tetonbaum smiles, his sapphires crescenting as he peers sideways at the little one kicking the meat and cloth of his shoulder with the tiny heels under his nightgown.

Feron settles back in his seat with Jaspin, and risks asking, "…What are you going to tell your wife when she you see her—about Braith, I mean."

Tetonbaum looks away from Jenner, "…I for one do not know…I would rather drive this ship into the sun than tell her what I have done…But uniquely," he says to Feron's unhappy look, "…I am want not to tell her if it results in trouble between the two of them…Braith and Kasumi are friends."

"Isn't it kind of backstabbing either way?"

Tetonbaum does not look angry by his asking such a question, "…Perhaps…I don't know what has come over me, Feron Saeah…I wanted an heir and did not realize the need was there…Having lain with Braith…I am thrilled with the prospect of being a father. It is something that changes a drell, you must realize…Even a th'ane like me."

"You know it's not going to be easy, being a father…" Feron hesitates, "…It's not like you can walk away from them."

"Have you had a child, Feron?"

"No," he shakes his head, his hand being played with by Jaspin, "…but I've seen what it does to people…Not just our species, but others…I imagine it will affect you similarly."

Tetonbaum smiles and looks down at his twining fingers in his lap over his clothes, an hour earlier Braith having had her posterior in those hands and on that very same lap, and the memory provoking a desire to return her there, "…I suppose it will…I understand now why my father—Casnar's father—enjoyed sleeping with drellahnas and making children…There is something powerful in it, sensual, connecting…" His smile fades from his lips, "…Something empowering, I would add."

"Your father's the same as Casnar and Cartira's?"

Tetonbaum nods. Feron tosses Jaspin lightly in the air as the computer in the cockpit begins to ping, "…Must be difficult, knowing you share a father and your father chose three other kids over you."

"It was not his choice…So I tell myself," Tetonbaum replies and nods to the computer, "…We are being hailed again."

Feron looks slowly away from Tetonbaum's bitterness on his patak, towards the screen, and sits up suddenly, his fingers tightening gently on Jaspin who is reaching for the buttons in the console under the flashing screen, "…That's no hail for greeting," he says urgently, standing up and turning for the bridge, "…We're being tracked."


Outside the small messenger vessel, a much larger ship with shields dropping as it approaches theirs, prepares to tract in the targeted supplier and with a green light bursting from the privateer scuttler, it connects this to the small-class star vessel to direct it off course, leading it as towed bounty in a new direction towards the Terminus.


Braith enters the cockpit and looks at the computer screen, "…Feron," she turns to him, "…Find what you can for weapons on this ship, go with Casnar and Ylyssus, they're in the back digging."

"What about the kids?"

Braith looks at Tetonbaum, "…You're on sitter duty now, big guy."

Tetonbaum is standing, listening to the sounds of Casnar and Ylyssus in the back, throwing things as they search for ways to arm themselves. "Who has taken control of the ship?"

"Probably mercs, pirates," Braith says as she turns and heads out with Feron, "…I'm going to watch the airlock…They may or may not board us through the usual doorway, but they'll likely want to salvage the ship and not cause damage. More credits that way if it's in good shape…I'm surprised they haven't boarded us yet."

"What will they do with us?"

"Whatever they hope to do with us," she calls back, "…The goal for ourselves is to make the objective not worth their efforts."

"Between you and I," Tetonbaum murmurs to himself, "…they will learn quickly the mistake they have made."