Alien General's Bride (Brion Brides 3)(50)

The last thought made Diego roar in challenge, sending men stumbling away from him. In the rain it was dark enough for him to see their valor squares pulse, some in terror, some in challenge. He knew he must have been a terrible sight, judging by Eren’s wide eyes. In all his years, he had carefully built his reputation to where no man crossed him easily – there was no other way to lead a Brion warship, where every meeting was open for challenges for his position.

Still, he was facing Brion warriors. Those who ran were few, but the others didn’t seem eager to attack him blindly. He broke the skull of the first brave warrior to challenge him, slamming the butt of his spear straight against the side of his head with enough force to make it crack with a nauseating sound. The next managed to land a grazing blow on his arm, but Diego turned to cut the warrior’s leg from under her.#p#分页标题#e#

A warrior coming from behind him tried to do the same to him, aiming to cut off his feet, but Diego jumped easily out of the way, all but beheading the man with a quick twirl of his spear. From afar, he saw Faren finally disarm his opponent. The next moment found the traitor with Faren’s axe planted into his chest, aimed so precisely as to make him live for several agonizing minutes before Faren pulled the axe free with a spray of blood in its trail.

The horror on Eren’s face was now clear for Diego to see as he and Faren kept advancing, cutting down anyone who stood in their way. The part of him that carried the Brion rage was so disgusted Diego could barely stop himself from giving the killing blow when they finally reached him. That crouching man, covered in mud and dirt and wet from the rain should have had some pride at least. He was still a Brion. Seeing the look on Faren’s face, Diego knew he wasn’t alone in feeling ashamed to belong to the same species as the traitor.

Soon enough, they would not.

At least Eren had the good sense not to beg. He was practically on his knees when they finally stood before him, in the midst of warriors dead and dying. But at least he didn’t shame himself by trying to plead with them.

The other traitor general chose that moment to attack from cover, but neither Diego nor Faren had forgotten about him. He was almost as big as Crane, and vicious like him – it seemed Eren preferred his generals big and stupid – but with none of the natural talent for killing. He was just pure rage and Diego knew how to handle that.

He dodged the first blow, letting Faren drive the traitor back with a mighty strike of his axe and then stepped past his brother to jam the spear quickly into the traitor’s lungs. Breathless, gasping, the general stumbled and that was the end of it. Faren was on top of him before he could even land and finished him quickly.

Judging from the look on Eren’s face, he had hoped to at least take down one of them, but Diego was still grothan. He called to his warriors to haul the senator up and take everyone still alive with them. It was a pity that they’d had to kill the other generals here in the mountains, but it could be expected they wouldn’t let themselves be taken alive. It was fine. Eren alone would do.

---

They waited until the morning. Somehow, it was symbolic to end lives at the break of day. No matter the race, some things in the universe remained constant.

Diego would have preferred for Isolde not to see the execution, but she was as much a part of this now as any of them and had to be present. His gesha had spoken to the council about justice, so it was fitting she was there to see it done. The traitor had to be punished, and then they would leave Rhea for a time, while the Galactic union   properly researched the planet. He wondered how Isolde felt about never getting to do what she’d left Terra for.

They were all there, in Rhea’s greatest and pretty much only city. Diego doubted the locals understood much of what was going on. They weren’t completely primitive, but the technology the GU species had was far beyond them. So far, they stood away, seeming to wait for all of it to be over already. He knew only a handful of them had ever even known about the Brions’ presence – those who found them despite them avoiding the settlements were killed quickly. Diego didn’t doubt the GU would have plenty of work here.

The Galactic union  ’s representatives were present, although they kept a wary distance from the Brions. Diego suspected it had much to do with the reputation they had, and the blood still trickling from his and Faren’s armors probably didn’t help cultivate the image of peace.

It didn’t matter. Putting everything into place was a task for Eleya and the other senators. Diego was a general and it was his duty to punish the traitors.

All the survivors of the assault in the mountains had been gathered in a large square, guarded by Faren’s warriors. Diego’s stood by each traitor’s side, a ceremonial sword at the ready. Brion customs were bloody, it was their way. He wondered if the council would think them barbaric or honorable. All of the traitors had been given a choice between simply being shot and accepting a warrior’s death. Unanimously, they’d chosen the warrior’s way. It was clear they were dead, now all they could do was face it.

Eren had chosen that as well. He knelt in the front of all the traitors, staring into the crowd. Diego didn’t have to look to see who he was watching. All that time, he had longed to make Eren’s death painful and drawn out, but he was denied that. The GU wanted justice and so did the Elders. Eren’s death was enough for them. But in silence, Diego could still make him go through this torment – seeing his gesha sentencing him to die.#p#分页标题#e#

Eleya was speaking to all that had gathered to witness the execution. Perhaps the GU’s representatives couldn’t catch it, but her voice shook to Diego’s hearing. She was saying how the Brions who were loyal to the Elders – now all the Brions – had hunted down the last of their traitors and would show the Galactic union   what the Brions did to those who betrayed their ways.

She proclaimed that the Brions would leave Rhea for a while, but that it was still a part of their world too. She said they were a part of the Galactic union   and they would remain so. Diego hoped it was true. He hoped they’d done enough to convince the council that the Elders didn’t want a war with them.

Eleya said that the Elders had sentenced all of the traitors to death, and that the execution would be carried out by Diego and his warriors. Now her voice really shook. She had spoken the whole time with her back to them, but then she had to turn and look. Beside her, Diego saw Isolde give Eleya a sympathetic look, but she didn’t reach out to support her, which made him very grateful.

Eleya was now their image to the GU’s council and she couldn’t be seen as in need of comforting. Only Diego understood how terrible the moment must have been for her. Urenya had already warned her just in case.

“I do not think she will try to stop you,” the healer had said. “But you have to be prepared. He is her gerion, after all. With all he is or is not, until he dies, they are fated. I believe she will keep her composure, but watch her.”

Diego did. Eleya’s eyes were wild as his warriors began the execution. Eren was deemed the last to die. It was a custom, to provoke guilt in the one whose fault it all was, but Diego didn’t believe for a second that the senator felt sorry. The sounds of the dying rose in pitch, but were silenced quickly. The execution wasn’t meant to torture anyone, simply to rid the world of them.

Eren didn’t turn his eyes from Eleya for a moment. Neither did she. For a moment, it seemed to Diego as if she might still do something insane, but the next moment she stood tall and proud again, the picture of dignity.

His eyes drifted to Isolde, to see her watching Eleya sadly. The whole affair made Diego grateful to all the gods or fate or whatever guided their lives that they had brought him Isolde – sweet, caring, soft and beautiful and warm Isolde instead of someone he might have hated. He couldn’t imagine feeling what Eleya felt for Eren – hating your fated so utterly you refused the binding. As the sounds died off and the order came to the senator at last, Diego had one last task he didn’t relish.

“The Brion Elders have sentenced you to die,” he told Eren bluntly. “You have chosen the warrior’s way. Do you have any last words?”

For a long moment of silence, Diego thought Eren might not say anything after all.

Then the senator lifted his head to look Eleya straight in the eyes. “You will say nothing,” he said very quietly, in a voice that was hardly his. “You say nothing, Eleya.”

It wasn’t an accusation, it was merely the statement of a dying man. The look on Eleya’s face was indescribable and Diego realized that at that moment, he was tormenting her. He lifted the sword, heard a muffled cry escape Eleya’s lips in the end, and struck.

Relief washed over him, the sense of his task being complete. He was still grothan. Looking at Isolde, he saw her breathe out too, free of fear at last.

---

He took Isolde away from all the blood and gore and death afterwards, to Rhea’s vast, empty forests. He had replaced his bloody war armor with the jacket he had worn when they met and like a spell it brought a smile to her sad lips. Trees as tall as towers made a roof above their heads as they walked and let the rest of the galaxy deal with its problems for a while, like Isolde had told him a few days ago, making him laugh. Her hand traced the lines of the jacket, her beautiful green eyes dreamy.