Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(28)

If they lived through the war, Ryden would have a lot to relay to the Brion Elders. The Clayor hive mind was clearly the most dangerous enemy they'd ever encountered.

But he had it now. No more tricks, no more schemes. He would drag the Host out from wherever it was hiding and kill it. Not all wars ended with taking down the enemy leader, but this one would. Ryden had the chance to end the war with one blow.

"What should we do with him, General?" one of his warriors asked. "Do you believe him?"

Ryden gave Ambassador Sota another hard, calculating look. There was something in the trembling form that reminded him of the champion he'd killed in the very same quarters. A detached look, twitches that didn't seem his own, the look of someone who had woken up from a long dream.

"Yes," he said.

Sota seemed to nearly collapse under the weight of his relief. He slumped, mumbling his gratitude, but he was of no more use to Ryden. The hive mind was too clever and Sota too weak to gain any more information.

"Take him away," he ordered. "Guard him. After this is over, the council will determine his fate."#p#分页标题#e#

"No," Sota said. "They will have me killed! They will execute me for treason."

"I will speak in your defense," Ryden told the cowering man, far removed from the arrogant ambassador he'd seen in the Galaya Hall. "The Clayor hive mind is infinitely more powerful than you are. It chose you on purpose. Your only crime is a weak will."

He saw the flash of anger in Sota's eyes, but the man was wise enough not to protest against the insult. Instead, he nodded, happy to accept that judgment instead of death.

"Thank you," he murmured, letting himself be pulled to his feet. "Thank you for your mercy."

Mercy, Ryden thought.

"This is not mercy," he said, turning away. "This is justice."



***



After they had taken the traitor away, Ryden felt a peculiar calm. A part of him ached for the kill, longing for true confrontation. He chose to cool that fury, knowing the time to face the enemy was near. At least now, finally, he was beginning to see the whole picture. Things that had not made sense to him before all started to come together.

And they put Aria right in the middle of it all. He had to wonder if it was a coincidence, either by the will of the fates or by the hive mind, for him to feel such a longing for a woman who the hive mind had chosen to aid it. The Clayors had used Sota to scout for them and they'd found Aria. All that time, they'd been building up to using her like they used the other Terran. Making her work bad jobs, giving her no credit, slowly turning her against the union  . That had been the plan, at least. He smiled, thinking that the hive mind had made a bad judgment call there. Aria had fought the Clayors tooth and nail all the way, even if she was no match for any of the enemies physically.

Everything was falling into place. Now all he had to do was keep Aria safe and let her bring Ilotra's defenses online. He would fight off this attack and maybe, if he was blessed, the fates would show him what it was all about in the end.

Above his head, the skies went bright as the day. One of the huge Fremma warships burst to a thousand pieces, raining metal and crew down on the moon. Through the wreckage, Ryden saw the first Clayor warships appear, long and spiky and clunky.

They may have been crude, but judging by the disaster around them, everything worked. Then those weapons took aim at the moon. The war had reached Ilotra.





CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Aria



Aria watched Ryden fighting through the Clayor troops on the monitors, on his way to her.

The sight took her breath away. Awe, dread, admiration, and horror were all mixed into one as she watched the general in his element. The great Brion battle spear flashed in his hands, bringing death to their enemies. Aria felt no sympathy for them, but the efficiency with which Ryden ended lives did instill a sense of caution in her. After all that had happened, she couldn't bring herself to fully trust that the general would be able to stop if need called for it. She chose to believe him instead.

And while her fear was undeniable, so was her being drawn to him. All the stories she'd heard, all the times Aria had seen the general right, they were incomparable to seeing him slip the leash off his self-control, even if for a moment.

With no one to protect and slow him down, she thought.

The Clayors were bombarding Ilotra with everything they had, but the moon wasn't built to break at any barrage delivered to it. The outer walls were several feet wide of practically unbreachable steel. The explosion that had blown a hole in the generator's hangar had been a specially crafted concoction, capable of doing the task.

Aria felt proud, despite herself, as if she had built the fortress. Ilotra was holding its own against the enemy and so were its protectors.

The ships weren't the only threat. Scores upon scores of Clayors had descended along with the bombs and were now roaming across the moon. Most of them were easy meat to the might of the Brions, but there were thousands of them and that counted for something.

Ryden was always where the fighting was the thickest, taking down champions and unit leaders. He was cutting through them as if they weren't even there.

For Aria, seeing him in battle was a strange mix of fear and certainty. She knew the general was better than all of the enemies combined, but that didn't rule out a stray blow or a sneak attack. Not even the best fighter in the galaxy—and Ryden would have been a contender—could ever boast being invulnerable.

All of the Brion generals bore battle scars to show they were forever testing their limits, pushing forward even in the face of danger. That was how they led their warriors. That was why Aria was left watching, nearly jumping out of her skin, at how Ryden dodged between the hordes of enemies. The Clayor knives were long and sharp and there seemed to be a wall of them around the general.#p#分页标题#e#

She kept waiting to see his blood spilled, but other than a few minor cuts he was unharmed.

Aria was observing his progress so single-mindedly that she actually missed the moment the general slipped from the monitors into the control center.

She only realized he was there when she was turned around by a pair of strong hands. Her breath caught when she found herself in his arms, the general's gaze burning with the fire of battle. The crystals implanted into his neck were pulsing wildly, sending out light and sound, but... before they'd blinked red and the noise around Ryden had been similar to growling. It had annoyed the Clayors, but Aria couldn't say why. Perhaps it was a frequency that hurt their ears. It was entirely possible.

Now, standing before her, Ryden's valor squares didn't transmit that irritating sound, nor were they red. They beamed bright, pure white light that should have hurt her eyes, but instead it soothed them. The valor squares were no longer screeching weird noises. Rather, the sound they made was a calming, soft humming.

The general's powerful body was heaving against her. All she felt was the cold, unyielding armor against her chest. All Aria wanted to feel was his warm, flawless tanned skin against her very naked body. She remembered it vividly and that made the longing only that much worse.

She shouldn't have done that, Aria was sure. No matter what became of them—and judging by his words, it would be nothing more than a fling—he shouldn't have given in to him. It hurt so much more to know what she was missing.

And she wasn't pulling away. Seconds ticked by and Ryden seemed as reluctant to let go of her as she was to slip free from his embrace. The crew and the warriors around them were suddenly very busy looking at everywhere but at them.

A blast right on top of them finally ripped Aria from her daze.

She could hear the roof shake, but it didn't give in. Ilotra wasn't as easy to break as the Clayors would have liked.

That reminded Aria.

"Sota..." she said and the general released her, a hint of regret in his eyes. "Is he dead?"

"No," Ryden said to her surprise. "I found that he was manipulated by the hive mind. He bears no blame, but a man like that isn't fit to sit in the council."

Aria was staring now, her mouth hanging open in mute shock. For Ryden to change his mind about killing someone—that was unheard of.

"I... why?" she asked. "How?"

"To get to you," the general said.

All right. The world is officially going crazy around me.

Aria would have been certain Ryden was joking with her if she didn't firmly believe that the Brions had their sense of humor surgically removed before joining the military ranks. Those guys didn't find anything funny and they weren't known for dry jests like that.

"Me," she repeated.

"Yes," the general said. "Sota has been under the control of the Host for a while now. I don't know for how long. I don't know if there are others. It doesn't really matter at this point. Once I kill the Host, they're all free from the influence it has over them."

"But why him?" Aria pressed, not understanding.

Ryden hesitated, confusing her even more.

"All I know for sure is that the hive mind doesn't do anything like that at random," he offered at last. "Sota was a convenient accomplice. He had access and power, but a weak constitution that couldn't resist the hive mind. He has been working to bring down Ilotra for a while now. Holding you back from the council and pressing you about information on the generator were all parts of it."