Or possibly not so irrationally.
When he determined there were no more huge chunks of the ceiling threatening to fall down upon them, he let the shield detract and rose from the wreckage like a warrior god. Aria could only stare, her lips slightly parted in awe as he simply shook himself clean of the debris like a beast rising from the snow. Then he looked down at her and there was a glimpse of concern in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly Aria thought she could have imagined it.
Ryden gave her a hand to help her stand up, but his mind was clearly on the attack. He was already giving new orders to his men. Some of them ran off in different directions. Most gathered around him, looking as ready and serious as he did.
"Move out," the general ordered. "Keep an eye out for those treacherous fucks. Kill on sight."
Yes, he was very dreamy, being all hot and menacing like that, and—what?
"Wait," she said, hurrying along with him, barely keeping up with his purposeful strides. "The council already distrusts you because you killed the Clayors. Can't you take them alive? We should—"
The second explosion ripped through the hangar walls, blowing a hole where the doors had been. For a moment, the noise was even worse than the first explosion, but then Aria no longer heard anything. All she was aware of was a crushing, colossal pressure threatening to pull her apart.
Everything was flying past her, drawn out of the hangar by a terrible force. Farther on, Ilotra's safety doors were sealing the hangar off from the rest of the fortress, but it wasn't fast enough for everyone. Aria saw people sucked out of the corridors straight into the cold, merciless emptiness of space. Along with all of the oxygen.
She was saved by Ryden, again. Still.
The general and his warriors were once again proving that they were not killed so easily. The long, impossibly strong Brion battle spears were planted into the floor, providing them with something to hold onto. They stood, defiant, against the raging mess around them, some magnetic force in their boots locking them to the ground.#p#分页标题#e#
All of that went through Aria's head in a matter of seconds. Then the pressure got to be too much. She couldn't hold her breath any longer, couldn't...
I don't want to die.
I don't want to die.
Through searing light and tears in her eyes, Aria felt the general turning her in his arms to face him. She thought the man was going to kiss her, but instead he blew on her lips. Aria couldn't feel it, of course, but some animal instinct in her understood, remembered her studies. She opened her mouth and breathed out. Ryden immediately covered her mouth with his hand. The searing burning sensation eased up, but not entirely. The pain was getting worse by the second.
The lack of oxygen would kill her soon, she knew. No human could survive in space for more than half a minute, and then only if they were really lucky.
In her last seconds, Aria was left looking at Ryden still holding onto her as though he might save her. She was mesmerized by his eyes, deep and dark green, shining with the will to survive.
She barely registered the lights of the fighter craft when it opened its doors above them. Another pull wrecked her body, but this time Ryden and his warriors dislodged their spears and boots and the whole group of them were sucked into the fighter. The doors closed with agonizing slowness for someone deprived of oxygen, and then Aria was lying on the floor, heaving in air with desperate, painful gasps.
Her entire body felt like it was on fire, and she was shaking from head to toe. Around her, the warriors were holding it together better, but she saw they weren't unaffected either. Ryden was standing above her with obvious worry in his eyes this time, as unflappable as the tide, seemingly completely at ease with almost meeting his match in the cold vacuum of space.
His voice was rough when he said:
"Slowly. You're safe now."
Aria wanted to say a few words about apparent safety, but all she could think of was:
"You... you s-saved my life again."
"I'm a Brion," the general said, with a smirk on his lips despite almost dying. "It is my duty."
Aww, that's kinda sweet. Maybe they're not so bad.
"To protect those who are weaker."
"Hey," Aria protested, before the soreness of her tongue stopped her for a moment. "That was a nice moment there we were having. Don't ruin it."
She knew she was being way too flippant with the general, but after two instances of him saving her life in the span of five minutes, Aria felt like they were on familiar terms.
He seemed to think so too, because instead of chastising her, the general merely smirked again, before he turned serious.
"Take us down," he ordered the pilot. "As close to the central hub as possible."
The fighter moved sharply to adjust course, sending Aria sliding across the floor to knock herself against the wall.
Graceful as always, she thought.
"Where are we going?" she asked, wondering if her voice would ever be the same again.
It felt like she'd aged years in the last half an hour. She'd have to see a doctor soon to make sure she had no permanent damage from the experience. Now that she had a moment to think about things, Aria stupidly realized how she had nearly killed herself. Holding your breath in space was an instinct, after all, even if it was fatal. The vacuum would have killed her in only a few more moments.
"We are going to the council," said the general. "And then we will hunt the Clayors down. We are going to make the ones responsible for what has happened pay for it."
"You don't know—" she tried once more when the fighter docked in another hangar and the doors slid open to let them out in a safe part of Ilotra.
"I do. It was the Clayors," Ryden said, marching on. "And I'll make them regret the day they ever brought my wrath upon them. Only cowards fight their wars without seeing their enemy eye to eye. I'll teach them a lesson in seeing death coming."
She didn't doubt him, not one bit. That was the problem. She couldn't allow him to roam around the fortress, killing whoever he thought deserved to die. Men like that never knew where to stop.
"General," she tried, "this is not how it's done."
"It is for the Brions," was his curt reply.
Aria felt the attraction she still undeniably felt drain away at the reappearance of his pompous superiority. The man was a very capable warrior, clearly, but that didn't mean he could walk into Ilotra and act like his word was law. The law was the law!#p#分页标题#e#
"Hey," she tried again, taking ahold of his arm.
That turned out to be a mistake. She thought she heard shocked murmurs from the other Brions when the general turned so fast Aria gasped in surprise. All at once, she found herself pressed against the wall with a very hot and very mad Brion general closer to her than any man had been in a while.
She wanted to be mad herself, Aria really did. It felt like the most rational reaction. She tried to force fury to the forefront, but instead a soft moan escaped her lips. Never too religious, Aria found herself praying that Ryden hadn't heard that. Seeing the look on his face, she doubted she was that lucky.
Tough luck for me. Of course he has that sharp warrior hearing on top of everything else.
"That was very foolish," the general said, but his voice was surprisingly soft.
If Aria had trusted her hearing after the explosion had nearly destroyed her eardrums, she would have thought that Ryden sounded husky.
"Never try to stop me from fighting a righteous battle. That hasn't ended well for anyone."
Aria didn't trust her voice to answer, so she merely nodded.
"I will not allow those bastards to blow up Ilotra, because you people think they need to confess first," he said then.
There was no mistaking that it was an order. Aria wasn't strictly speaking under his command, but once again she thought of how futile it was to argue with a Brion.
"Very well," she said, feeling defeated. "Don't expect the council to love you for it."
The general gave her a weird look.
"Love," he said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I don't fight my wars to be loved. I fight battles that are just and I win. It does not matter to me what others think. Especially those who do not see what needs to be done."
With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Aria to follow in painful silence, wondering if that comment was directed at her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ryden
The council was in session, as he'd predicted. No doubt they were trying to find out who was to blame for the explosions, or what kind of punishment to instill upon him for escaping. He couldn't imagine how they presumed to do either.
The sessions of the full council, composed of all the ambassadors of the Galactic union , took place in a grand hall called the Galaya Hall. Ryden figured it was better if he let himself in. The guards at the door took one look at him before thinking better of trying to block his path. Ryden frowned. A Brion warrior would never have done that, even if facing a far superior opponent.
It was painfully, obviously clear that Ilotra wasn't prepared for an attack of any kind.
As he entered, Ryden noticed that he seemed to bring mute, grudging silence everywhere he went.
Finally, the same man who had spoken to him before in the atrium opened his mouth again.
"You—" was the only word he got to say, before Ryden interrupted.