Part 8 (2/2)

”Nothing,” Talyn said firmly.

Galene wasn't quite ready to let it go. ”Answer me, Commander. Have you ever fought him in battle?”

Talyn cut a gimlet stare to Kareem and Chayden before he returned it to his mother. ”Do I need to get Vari up here to verify my account, since my word obviously isn't good enough for Her High Holiness? Believe me, he knows who fought us that day. And who shot me down. It wasn't Hauk.” Talyn raked him with a sneer. ”Trust me, he's not that good a pilot.”

Offended to the core of his being, Fain swallowed hard as he met Galene's hate-filled grimace. ”I would never have fired on my son... had I known.”

Chayden sucked his breath in sharply. ”Whoa... whoa... wait a minute. The Iron Hammer's your kid? No s.h.i.+t?” He turned in his seat to look at Talyn. ”You're Hauk's son? Seriously?”

Talyn gave Fain a harsh stare. ”Through basic biology only.”

Chayden let out a low whistle as he took over navigation. ”Can someone say awkward? We could cut this tension with a knife, but the hostility's so thick here, I think it's a bad idea to introduce sharp objects into it.”

Wisely remaining silent, Kareem nodded his agreement.

Fain didn't speak while guilt gnawed at him. Like Galene, he had a bad feeling that Talyn was withholding vital information. Though why the boy would protect him when he hated him so much was beyond his best comprehension.

Trying not to think about something he couldn't change, he settled the mic in his ear and launched.

Once they were leaving the Andarion atmosphere, he made the mistake of glancing toward Galene. The hatred in her white eyes shrank both his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es and made him physically ill. s.h.i.+t, at this rate, they were practically crawling back into his stomach and if she didn't stop that glaring hatred soon, he'd be female by lunch.

Never once had he considered the fact that while he'd made Tavali runs for Venik against his former homeworld that he might be fighting his own kid.

Or Galene. She was supposed to have gone to med school, like her parents. He had no idea what had sent her into the military instead. Especially given her family history with the Andarion armada and the Purging that the former tadara had done against the entire Batur lineage to brutally wipe them out. Why would Galene risk military service given that the former queen had wanted her entire bloodline exterminated?

Something must have gone seriously wrong to put her on that course. Something he couldn't begin to fathom.

Kareem inclined his head to Talyn. ”How long you been in uniform, Batur?”

”Fourteen years.”

Fain cringed at a number that definitely would have put them head-to-head under Tadara Eriadne's reign.

”How many as a pilot?”

He held his breath, terrified of hearing his son's answer.

”Almost seven, total.”

Kareem scowled. ”First or last?”

”First.”

Double s.h.i.+t.

Yeah, that was right in the thick of when Fain would have been making his heaviest attacks in Andarion territory. There was no telling how many times he'd engaged Talyn in battle.

Probably Galene, too.

”What made you stop?”

Before Talyn could answer, his nose and ear began pouring blood. Cursing, he leaned forward and pulled a cloth from his pocket to hold against them.

Galene gasped. ”Talyn?”

He sighed at his mother's worried tone. ”I'm fine, Commander. It's nothing.” He glanced toward Kareem. ”To answer your question, I was medically grounded after my last near-death experience. While I can still fly, the doctors don't like what the sudden changes in pressure and escape velocity do to my body. In s.p.a.ce, I'm fine. It's the reaching s.p.a.ce part that gets b.l.o.o.d.y for me.” He glanced at the blood on his hands. ”Literally.”

Galene glared at Fain with a searing hatred that shriveled his innards.

He glared back. Just as Fain started to defend himself, Talyn placed his hand over hers.

”Let it go, Mum. The past is done. Lay it to rest.” Talyn returned to his conversation with Kareem. ”What about you? How long you been Tavali?”

”I took my Canting and oath at eighteen. But my birth father's Braxen Venik. Leader of the Porturnum Nation.” He jerked his chin toward Fain. ”He's also Fain's father.”

Talyn arched a brow at that.

”Tavali father,” Fain explained. ”You have to be adopted to wear our uniform. You can't just raise the banner and proclaim yourself Tavali. Anyone that stupid is taken out of our gene pool immediately. Unlike other nationalities, Tavali is a citizens.h.i.+p that comes with obligation. It's a privilege you earn and maintain, not a birthright.”

Galene snorted. ”My G.o.d, Fain, how many times have you been adopted in your lifetime?”

Fain ground his teeth at her snotty tone.

Kareem stiffened. ”You need to show him some respect. There aren't many slaves who'd take the blast for their owners that Hauk took for my father. Trust me, he more than earned his place in our family.”

Galene's jaw went slack. ”So, you weren't conscripted? You really were enslaved?”

Fain winced at something he didn't like thinking about or remembering. And he d.a.m.n sure didn't want to talk about it, especially not in front of Venik's kid as Venik had been one of his owners, and it still stuck in his craw. ”It was a long time ago... Venik fostered me after I saved his life, only because he felt he could trust me. Cairie, a few weeks back, after I helped rescue her granddaughter. Honestly though, her adoption was nothing more than an FU to my real mother.”

Talyn wiped the blood at his ear. ”How so?”

Fain started to answer that it came from when his father had broken his pledge with Cairistiona by sleeping with Fain's mother the night before they were to legally finalize it. But self-preservation stopped that particular brand of stupid from spilling out of his mouth. Talyn would be the first to point out the irony and that faithless acts of treachery must run in the blood of all male Hauks. ”Personal grudge from when they were kids.”

Galene c.o.c.ked her head. ”So you're The Tavali who saved Tizirah Thia?”

”You don't have to sound so surprised. I have been known to battle from time to time. And I didn't do it alone.”

She bristled at that. ”You'll have to forgive me if I don't automatically a.s.sociate acts of heroism and altruism with your name... given our past.”

Fain shook his head at the contempt he heard in her voice. Contempt that cut him deeper than anything else. There was no way he'd ever be able to redeem himself with the very female he should have died to protect.

How can I ever make this right? It just didn't seem possible.

Kareem turned in his seat to face Galene and Talyn while Fain headed them out toward deep s.p.a.ce. ”Look, I know there's some bad history here, but Fain is my brother and the Tavali are nothing if not loyal to our own. So let me warn you now, if you want to stay healthy and happy in your new a.s.signment, you'll stow the disdain for Commander Hauk before we land. Any s.h.i.+t-talk against Hauk is s.h.i.+t-talk against a Venik, and you don't want to say anything negative about my family in our HQ. It won't go well for you.”

Galene scoffed. ”Tavali don't scare me. Ever. But don't worry. Your beloved brother is safe from any further harm where I'm concerned. I intend to avoid him as any sentient creature would a contagious STD.”

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