Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(3)

Apparently the senators did guess that his mood would be sour when he came to accept his new assignment.

Only it wasn't an assignment. It was exile, no matter the words they used to distract from the true purpose.

Rows upon rows of armed-to-the-teeth bodyguards surrounded the great meeting hall where the senators gathered. Ryden didn't spare any of them a look, but they definitely kept an eye on him.

His feelings toward them were complicated. They were Brions like him, the greatest warriors ever born in the galaxy. The valor squares on their necks, pulsing threateningly when he approached, showed that quite a few were accomplished fighters.

It made no difference to him. All it meant was that they could maybe go a few rounds with him before their inevitable defeat.

When he stepped into the meeting hall, all noise ceased completely. All eyes were on him.

General Ryden had assumed his rank very recently. He'd barely finished receiving congratulations when the message from the senators had called him down to the surface of Briolina.

His hands were matted with dried blood. The huge battle spear mounted across his broad back was still colored crimson with it, an idle drop rolling down the blade. When it hit the floor, Ryden was sure every single man and woman in the room heard it. General Hagen had put up a fight after all.



He must have been quite a sight to see. After several moments, not even High Senator Eleya had said a word to break the tense silence. He saw his image on the holoprojectors, broadcasting the meeting to senators who were attending from somewhere else on Briolina, stony-faced and silent as they were.

The man standing in the doorway looked threatening, as he should. The general observed the gathered senators from under dark, pitch-black strands of hair falling over his flashing green eyes. He was watching his holo-twin do the same, breathing heavily, still worn from the fight. Wide, powerful shoulders hunched, broad chest heaving, dressed in a captain's uniform that he'd never put on again. Even so, he towered over everyone in the hall, a warrior born and raised.



The fight had left him exhausted, but he refused to let it show. No duel for the position of a Brion general was ever easy. If it would have been so, the leadership would have been battled over every other day. And Hagen hadn't even been old, merely older.

He'd expected... well, not praise. Brions assumed that when you were good enough, you didn't need to be told you were. What he'd presumed was acknowledgment of some kind, not a fool's task that no one in his stead would have accepted.

Only a single person in the hall dared to look him straight in the eye. With an amused smirk, Ryden noticed that the woman was the only one not to have a protective shield of bodyguards around her. She was the lone person there he didn't immediately hate. High Senator Eleya had a reputation, and he guessed she would have cut out the tongue of the first person to suggest she needed protection.

She was the one to break the silence, her voice at once cold and menacing.

"General Ryden," she said through gritted teeth. "You have some nerve. You were summoned to appear before us as the new commander of the Conqueror. Not still dripping with the blood of the former general."

Ryden smirked, hearing that. He cracked his neck, standing up straighter, baring his teeth in a feral grin. His voice was hoarse when he spoke, rough from the cut in his throat. It had almost ended his life.

"This is what a general looks like," he said. "Perhaps you have forgotten, High Senator."

Several emotions warred on High Senator Eleya's face. There was the immediate anger, marking her as a born warrior. But there was amusement as well, knowing he spoke the truth. And bitterness at not being able to taste the thrill anymore, the intensity that only came from living on the edge. Being a general was a gift and a curse. It was a prize every warrior fought for, but it quickly turned to ashes in their hands when they had to start fighting to keep their position.#p#分页标题#e#

"I don't object to your victory," Eleya said, glaring at him. "I'm merely pointing out you're disrespecting the man you succeeded."

All the while, the other senators were quietly trying to find their seats without drawing attention. Ryden noticed that. It pleased him to see them grovel in fear. As they should, after all the troubles they'd brought upon Briolina. Even Brions thought twice before angering their generals, who were not known for being a forgiving group.

"I am not," Ryden snarled, emotions high from his victory. "I am honoring his legacy by showing the victory was hard won. He was a great commander, a tradition I mean to continue. Which is why this task is a joke. One I demand that you change."

The High Senator's eyes got even colder, if that were possible. She rose from her seat at the center of the room. Eleya was a tall woman, dark-haired and still fit. Unlike the other senators, she had the long line of valor squares going up her lean neck, implanted to speak of her victories and glories. Yet even as a warrior, she had to crane her neck a bit to look Ryden in the eye.

"You demand nothing," she said with emphasis. "You were given a task, General Ryden. You will do your duty."

"It is beneath me," Ryden replied coldly. " I need to be on the front line, in the thick of fighting to show my warriors I'm fit to lead. Not sitting in some war council like a politician!"

Eleya regarded him, her eyes flashing. Ryden knew he'd struck a nerve, but it wasn't his priority to spare her feelings. Even the Galactic union   couldn't summon him like a common serf.

"I'd already decided to send General Hagen," Eleya said, taking hold of her temper. "Since you killed him, you inherit everything he left behind. Including his duties."

"I am not the same man."

"That's why I'm not sending you for the same reasons," the High Senator snapped. "The Galactic union   is under serious threat. After years of bad blood, we finally have a chance to show them what we are capable of. To wage war, like we are born to do. The union   looks to us. But they need someone there to oversee things."

"Don't lecture me on war," Ryden growled. "I know what is needed and what is not. I see no merit in going. We belong in the battle."

"This is a big war," Eleya said, barely concealed venom tinting her words. He was trying her patience and Ryden had no desire to stop doing so. "There are many factions and many battlefields. It needs a coordinator. No one knows war like Brions do. You said it yourself."

"I did," Ryden said. "It doesn't mean I volunteered for the job."

"It's a good thing then that I don't have to ask for your opinion in the matter."

Ryden moved so fast none of the other senators even saw him charging. The muted, shocked gasps of surprise and outrage only echoed after the dust had settled. Their bodyguards came closer, but Eleya waved them off. She was awkwardly bent backward over her senatorial seat, Ryden's spear inches from her throat. Her own was lying on the ground, knocked out of her grip.

There was no fear in her eyes. Ryden understood that much. Brion generals didn't listen to anyone who cowered from them, and Eleya knew this as well as he did.

"I think you find that you do," he hissed at the High Senator. "I will not watch this war happening on a holoprojector because you think I can be manipulated."

Eleya scowled at him, quite a feat for someone inches away from dying in a very unpleasant way.

"Do you honestly think I'm sending you because I'm petty?" she asked furiously. "I'm sending you because I think you are needed there."

"There is nothing to do," Ryden said. "It is a job for an administrator, not a warrior. I will go where my skills are truly needed. The council of the Galactic union   isn't it."

"It is," Eleya said, trying to control her breathing. "The Clayors have made threats against the council itself. If you would have let me explain, I would have said so. It's not just the planning, General. I'm sending you to defend Ilotra."

That... that was something else. Unsure if he was being toyed with, Ryden pulled back. Eleya sat up, rubbing her scratched throat, coughing. Some of the other senators had fled, but that was to be expected. The bodyguards were still there, though, ready to try to take him into custody at any moment if told to do so.

Eleya ordered them to stay put. Ryden knew that after being on the verge of civil war, Eleya was doing her best not to let another quarrel between senators and generals to break out. Ryden himself would have gladly welcomed the attempt, even if he was tired from his duel. A Brion warrior never missed the chance to hone their skills, and frankly, he doubted he’d get more than a light warm-up from those assembled if things got that far.#p#分页标题#e#

It was also the reason the name Ilotra changed things.

The fortress of Ilotra was the home of the GU's main council. It was a construction unlike any other in the galaxy. Initially a companion to the gigantic gas planet Ilo, several hundred years after its discovery it had transformed completely. The fortress now covered the companion moon entirely, forming a half-artificial, half-celestial symbiosis. It was immense, serving as a central point to politics, trade, and everything else that the Galactic union   controlled.

No serious attempt had ever been made to attack a fully operational Ilotra, but the way Ryden saw it, the Clayors were just mad enough to try. And possibly mad enough to succeed. His kind of enemy.