Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(6)

So she rushed Ryden through the corridors of Ilotra, watching the man take it all in. She wished he could see the fortress on a better day and not be greeted by what happened. Then, maybe, he'd care enough to protect the people as well as the moon itself. That was Aria's biggest fear—the Brions taking everything too literally. He'd been called to defend the moon, not the council and the crew. She hoped he could do both.

Her sense of duty told her that she should have warned the Clayors, in case the general was wrong. After all, she'd been tasked to make sure the exact thing Ryden was planning to do didn't happen. But the problem was, she believed him. She'd felt there was something off with the Clayors delegation from the start, but she hadn't been able to put her finger on it.

Still, Aria wondered if she was doing the wrong thing. Either with leading Ryden straight to the Clayors, or with letting him take the blame for their deaths. In her heart, she knew she couldn't have stopped him even if she tried. If an army stood between him and his goal, he wouldn't have turned back.



They found the Clayors in a huge atrium that served as a waiting room for most council meetings. It was a room only in the broadest of terms, so large and so vast that Aria couldn't see its end far over the horizon. Gleaming, pristine white surfaces marked it as a common room designated for the GU's ambassadors. She could see many of her colleagues from all over the galaxy lounging there, waiting for the next session.

Everyone who saw them turned their heads to stare. It was no wonder. Brions tended to have that effect on others, Aria had noticed.

The Brions saw the Clayors at once and, of course, the enemy also saw them.

The Clayors had never been one of Aria's favorite species. There was something eerie and unsettling about them long before they came into open conflict with the union  . Their long, elongated bodies and wide eyes made them very alien-y.

Aria was an ambassador of the Galactic union  , but she couldn't help thinking that. It wasn't an uncommon thought among the council members. Those with four arms looked at her like she was weird. They kept asking the humanoid species how they ever got anything done.

So the Clayors were odd. They moved with serpentine grace that unnerved Aria. It made her think they could move much faster if they chose to and were holding back.

That was one paranoia that turned out to be founded, to her surprise. As soon as the Clayors saw Ryden, their expressions changed. They always had the most disturbing serene smiles that were impossible to trust, but at the sight of him they all frowned.

Like one. With one expression. Aria had never felt that stupid in her life. The hive mind, staring right at her with more than ten faces all reacting as one.#p#分页标题#e#

There was no doubt in her heart anymore, but the other ambassadors didn't share her faith. The councilmen stood and tried to step between Ryden and the Clayors.

"General," one of them actually tried to stop him. "They are guests here. They are under the protection of the council. We have assured them they have immunity while they are on Ilotra..."

"I made no such deals or promised anything of the sort," Ryden said, pushing past the man as though he wasn't even there. "And you are an idiot for letting Ilotra be breached like this."

His warriors followed in his wake, silent, with fury burning in their eyes.

"General Ryden," a high-ranking ambassador warned, coming to bar his way again.

Aria recognized Ambassador Klaen, the speaker for the council that term.

"You will stand down and not assault those under the protection of the council. That is an order."

Aria groaned inwardly. That was the worst choice of words Klaen could have picked. She wondered how the man couldn't have known that, having worked together with Brions before. Their temper was legendary. She took a few steps forward to explain and try to dissolve the tension, but Ryden reacted exactly as she'd thought he would.

"You do not order me," he said coldly. "I do not care about your ridiculous rules. When I see an enemy, I kill it."

The Clayors hissed in fury, backing away from him in a motion that could almost be called a slither.

"Is this how you rule, ambassadors?" one of them asked, his voice etched with anger. "We thought we could come to an agreement. We thought we could negotiate, but you let this killer murder us before your very eyes."

Oh boy, Aria thought. This is bad. This is so bad.

She tried to rush to Ryden's side, to reason with him, despite assuring Elik before that it was impossible. But people coming closer blocked her way. Ilotra's own security was running to meet the Brions, but Ryden had no match there.

Without further comment, he marched right up to the Clayors.

"Is that all you have to say?" he asked impassively.

Aria saw glimpses of the Clayors hissing at him, trying to back away even more, but they never made it far.

"Kill them," Ryden ordered.

After that, Aria only saw blades and blood, and only heard screaming and hissing. And before the very end, she thought she heard the hive mind laugh.





CHAPTER SIX

Ryden



The Clayor hive mind's plan didn't occur to Ryden before it was too late.

Problem was, he was unwilling to stop even if that was what the hive mind had wanted. Like all Brions, he always spoke the truth. There wasn't much point in lying when you were one of the most powerful men in the galaxy. The dreaded Brion general Faren was often quoted saying that the generals didn't have the luxury of being liars. It was their duty to do what was needed, even if that didn't bode well for them.

Watching the hundred or more guns trained on him and his warriors, Ryden regretted nothing. If there had been any doubt in his mind, it was gone the moment he heard the hive mind laugh through ten mouths, perfectly in sync.

He thought he heard the female ambassador scream something as they led him away. Under any other circumstances, Ryden wouldn't have allowed it, but even he couldn't match the impossibly precise laser rifles aiming at his heart. No prison Ilotra could devise would hold him, he knew that. Until then he saw little point in losing his warriors in a useless fight or risking a wound when it was obvious he was really needed there.

That, of course, had been the hive mind's plan. Ryden felt himself grinning as he let Ilotra's security patrol take him away from the Clayors' corpses. He had wondered what point there was to infiltrating Ilotra and simply getting caught so easily. But there the cause was, right before his eyes.

It was him. He had been the target. The hive mind was betting on him doing exactly what he'd done. Now the defender of Ilotra had discredited himself before the eyes of the council, proving the Brions' savage reputation once more. More disagreement, more confusion. That was all the hive mind had wished for, and Ryden had served himself up on a silver plate.

He appreciated it because he liked the challenge. An enemy like that, capable of coming up with elaborate plans like the one he just witnessed, was the only kind truly worth fighting. Death or glory, he'd wished.

The hive mind wasn't disappointing him in that.

Of course it was also bad, very bad. It meant people would start dying sooner rather than later and that the Clayors had found an easy target with the GU. While he was pleasantly surprised by the Clayors, Ryden's disappointment with Ilotra grew with each minute.#p#分页标题#e#

To begin with, they had to be joking with his cell. The security patrol thought it was enough to lead him into solitary confinement, but that was not nearly enough. Ryden didn't know if he should laugh or cry, for Ilotra was worse off than he'd imagined. The ambassador back in the atrium had already shown that the council knew nothing of Brions, but that was something on a whole new level.

Ryden waited patiently for the patrol to close the heavy door behind him. He could have killed all of them easily, even with his hands bound together with the magnetic cuffs. He had decided against it, not out of mercy, but out of necessity. Once he was done showing them exactly how weak their defenses were, he'd need the patrols to help fight off the real enemy.

Counting to thirty seemed enough. While he waited, standing in the middle of his prison cell, Ryden focused. The only possible explanation for their foolishness was that the GU ambassadors had never really shared the complicated and brutal training Brion warriors went through. Getting out of magnetic cuffs might have been impossible for other species, but they were far from ordinary.

He rolled his shoulders as well as he could and started pulling the cuffs apart. The magnetic field resisted, naturally, but Ryden had them off in a few seconds. It was a test applied at the lowest levels in the Brion military academy. Time wasn't an issue yet, but he couldn't have another warrior escape the cells before he did. What kind of an example would that set?

Despite his brewing frustration with the council, Ryden allowed himself a smirk. They thought to lock up his warriors, but Ryden knew each and every one of them took it as a challenge like he did. A game, rather. There was no if, only when. And if any of his warriors failed to escape, he'd see they were demoted to a position more fitting their skills.

Out of his cuffs, Ryden looked around, mulling over his options. Stepping into the room, he'd immediately seen five ways out of it.

He hadn't yet had the chance to pick one of them when surprisingly his door opened again.