Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(26)

There. He'd set things in motion now and all he had to do was make sure they proceeded as he'd commanded. Ryden had no illusions about the fight to come. There were a lot of Clayor vessels; some of them were bound to slip through the blockade. Ilotra would come under attack very soon and it was up to him to defend it.

He would find and kill the Host and hope that Ilotra survived until he did. That depended on the people around him. Ryden trusted in himself and his warriors without question, but he doubted Stavor was going to jump to obey his orders like a good boy.

Only after all of that did he turn to Aria, to find the little Terran looking at him wide-eyed. There was a change there, something he couldn't figure out. No fear of him, no recoil, merely... relief?

That was understandable. The Brions were finally given the fight they'd wanted, a chance to prove themselves. She had to be glad they were protecting Ilotra.

In the midst of all the things he had to keep an eye on, Ryden only found one issue troubling. He hesitated, looking at Aria, so beautiful and so fragile. He knew there was strength in her, but she wasn't a warrior.

"Ambassador," he said. "You might be safer with the others down on Ilotra's lower levels."

Aria shook her head at once.

"I will not go," she protested. "I've already spent days without knowing what was going on. I want to be here. I want to help. Don't send me away, General."

That answer both gladdened and concerned him. Ryden nodded, conceding.

"Very well," he said. "But I urge you to stay near my warriors at all times. And when the enemy arrives, you must hide."

Aria nodded, but the general could see the hesitation in her. Not fear; on the contrary. He suspected she would not run from the danger, but instead still attempt to do her part. If it were a Brion showing those qualities, he'd have been proud to command someone so brave. Aria's willingness to put herself in danger, however, only made him more intent to never let her out of his sight.#p#分页标题#e#

He pointed to the generator.

"Is there no backup to that?" he asked.

"No," Aria said, sighing. "Nothing nearly powerful enough. I kept telling them they needed one, but it was said to be useless. We'd never had a real threat."

"Redirecting power?"

Aria looked out of the hole in the hangar wall, up into the space above them where they could see ships moving out to battle the enemy.

"Not in time to be useful," she said quietly. "It would take weeks. Weeks under normal circumstances, with a trained crew."

"Very well," Ryden said calmly.

Aria turned to him, frowning a bit. "You took that very well."

The general looked at her, standing there feeling bad for not being able to generate power to shield an entire moon. He noticed his voice softened around her, taking on a reaffirming tone.

"I do not ask for miracles," he said. "If it can't be done, I will find another way to protect Ilotra."

She regarded him, an unbelieving yet confident look in her eyes. As if she was willing him to give her the faith she lacked.

"How?" Aria asked, smiling hopelessly. "The bubble is gone."

"Yes," he said. "It does not mean we've lost."

"Only that it will be a thousand times more difficult to win."

Ryden grinned.

"Yes," he confirmed.

A small smile played on Aria's lips. "You are happy for that," she said. "This is what you wanted."

The general didn't miss the note of concern in her voice.

"It is. It is finally a battle I know how to fight. This is how I'll win."

"I believe you."

There was a spark of mischief in her eyes. Ryden found himself radiating to that, to the inner light that kept burning even in the worst circumstances. The beautiful Terran with the perfect body and a matching mind. He longed to have her as his own. She called to him, called with a passion, but not with the fated bond. He didn't understand it. Brions were brought up to believe their gods didn't make mistakes. The general had never doubted them, but Aria made him question their wisdom.

"You remind me of a Terran general," Aria said as his warriors returned and led them to a secure walkway. "He was fighting a battle and it wasn't going that well. So he sent a message to the others. It said: 'My center is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking.' It sounds like you, General."

Ryden turned to her, his eyes alight. Normally he didn't appreciate being compared to mere humans, but that man sounded like someone he'd have wanted to meet.

"I like him," he growled.

"I figured you might," Aria said.





CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Aria



It was the war, messing with her head. It had to be.

There was no other explanation, Aria thought, to her behaving so irrationally. In the mere week she'd known Ryden, she kept jumping from hating everything he stood for to admiring him at the same time.

Not to mention jumping in his bed.

Yes, now there was the fucking involved too.

Great going, approved her mind. Right in the middle of an intergalactic conflict, you find a way to create personal drama.

Aria scowled at that voice in her head. It was an annoying part of her that was usually right. The rational, easily contemplative part that right now was telling her to stop thinking of Ryden as a man and start helping him save Ilotra.

Easier said than done.

The general hadn't left her side since the collapsing hallway. Aria wondered if he'd felt the terrible threat of dying as keenly as she had. Honestly, she doubted it. Brions didn't consider dying an option until it was literally happening to them right at the moment. Through all of it, Ryden had assured her that they'd be fine, that he'd save them both.

Aria would have given a lot to know if he'd said it simply to make their last moments alive easier or if he'd really been that confident in the face of tons of rocks.

The latter, she thought. Don't they say Brions are capable of delaying death simply by refusing to die?

That brought a small smile to her lips. It was an ancient anecdote about the Brions, one that she wouldn't necessarily repeat to just anyone. They tended to take it as an insult to their abilities, saying there was no honor in simply surviving.

They really were a unique species, Aria concluded. Nothing about them was normal or rational, everything was over the top, but it worked. Apparently it also worked on her, because there she was, hopelessly attracted to Ryden despite still being plagued by doubts about his intentions. They were disappearing like snow in the sun, though. From the moment the general had set his foot on Ilotra, Aria had waited for the disaster, but it didn't come. She definitely wouldn't have done everything exactly the same, but not the opposite either.#p#分页标题#e#

His words before had changed something, that was for sure. Did the general mean it? Would he really endanger his flagship to protect Ilotra? Aria couldn't believe it. The Brions protected the flagships almost as much as their home planet Briolina. The union  's council actually thought they could no longer produce the ships, that the technology to replace them was lost.

High above them, the Conqueror loomed over the moon-fortress. Its master was standing right beside Aria, almost elbow-to-elbow with her, seemingly unwilling to let her move away from him. He had been giving commands for a full ten minutes now, trying to hold the situation under control.

And he was doing it. Aria had no idea how, but so far Ilotra remained relatively untouched, even without the shield.

That brought her back to the thing that had been bothering her ever since seeing the broken generator.

"General," she said carefully, knowing better than to interrupt him.

She had to wait a minute until Ryden could spare the second to look toward her, his stormy green eyes warning that her words better be important.

Aria chose to cut straight to the point.

"Someone dropped the shield for the Host," she said.

Ryden's expression changed at once. Before, he'd looked on edge, tense with holding Ilotra's defenses together by sheer force of character. Aria had heard the Koliar commander Stavor barking his discontent at him. Ryden had coldly told the warlord to obey his commands or come and voice his concerns in person. Stavor hadn't.

But hearing her words, the general turned furious. Aria almost backed away, even if she knew for a fact she wasn't in danger. Not from Ryden, at least.

"You are sure?" the general snarled.

"Yes," Aria nodded. "It makes sense. If the Host knew how to disable the generator's shield, it would have done so three days ago. I would have been useless to it then. It didn't know and it couldn't breach it on its own. It had to be someone else."

"The traitor," Ryden grit through his teeth.

The general turned to the officer by the control console. "Were the cameras still functional in the hangar during the last attack?"

The officer hastened to obey, bringing up images. Aria saw Ryden watching the playback grimly, seeing him duel the Host, then disappearing from sight. In a glimpse, Aria even saw herself, retreating away from the battle. She bit her lip in regret. If she'd have stayed, maybe she could have stopped whoever had betrayed Ilotra. Bitterly, she shook her head. Aria didn't need anyone telling her she didn't have the might to stop...

Another figure appeared before the camera, hidden beneath a hood. Ryden bent closer to see better, but it was almost impossible to make out the identity of the person who walked straight to the generator's console. And dropped the shield. They all saw him escaping before Ryden and Aria returned, and they saw the Host leaving too.