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I had not intended to take a hostage with me, nor had I intended to allow Baron Nathan to breathe another breath when I entered the walls of his city—which was really a too generous of a word for the heap of trash. That Horn was falling apart was easy to see, just as easy as the recent repairs that had been done to it.
Paid for with Chrymphten credits, I fumed.
I didn't fully believe the sibling’s story, but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. Both were young, the boy might have been around twenty-five—not much younger than me, but still a boy. Whereas the female was probably even two or three rotations younger than him, at least in age. From the short conversation we had I gathered that she undoubtedly was the brains behind the shared rulership.
Because of that I didn't disregard the notion that she was more invested in this sordid affair than they had led on, but I didn't doubt that I would find out the truth sooner or later. For now she was in my possession and the boy wouldn't dare do anything that resulted in getting her hurt. I was sure of that. The bond between the two was obvious.
"What are you going to do to me?" She asked when we walked down the rusty pier that led to where my ship was anchored.
"Like I said, that depends on your brother, for now you will be my honored guest." I replied smirking.
"A guest would imply that I had the freedom to come and go." She challenged.
"If you prefer, you're my hostage then," I shrugged. Words didn't matter to me.
"Let's keep it honest then and call me your hostage." She insisted.
"Fine, climb aboard, hostage," I held out my hand to help her over the small gap between the pier and the boat, which she pointedly ignored, gracefully stepping on the ship like she had probably done all her life.
Land was scarce on Oceanus, as the planet's name implied. The largest island was about a mile in diameter, the others maybe an acre or two, none of them offered much in form of building a city or even small town on them, so all of our cities were build right into the ocean ground, or floating cities, like Horn. Mostly built by tying many boats together, adding platforms over the rotations, holding homes and stores.
As far as floating cities went, Horn was one of the largest I had ever visited, most of the larger ones became stationary after so many rotations and add ons. Not this one though, which I supposed had been born by the necessity to go where the quanip and graff where.
My little hostage tried to look unimpressed, but her wondering eyes were wide and interested as she took in my ship, the Nautica. The Nautica wasn't a spaceship, just a boat that could nearly fly over the waves, and even underneath them. She was my preferred method of transportation when I traveled through my realm.
"The journey won't take long," I told her.
Having surrendered her hair back to her as soon as we exited the great hall, she moved away from me now to the stern, leaning against the railing and stared out at the endless ocean before us.
"People get sick of this view," I stated, standing beside her.
"Not me," she smiled. "I love the endless possibilities of it. The wide open space."
I agreed with her, but I wasn't about to reveal this much about myself to her. I was surprised though, most females did not like to stay on Oceanus because the view depressed them, as many had admitted. Even Anna told me that after a few weeks, her eyes were beginning to hurt her, staring out at the blue that at times perfectly merged with the sky. One of the many reasons I hadn't asked her to stay.
"Are your humans happy here?" I heard myself ask Niara, surprising myself that I even kind of cared about her answer.
Humans had lived with us for over a hundred rotations now. I grew up with them being part of our lives, but I had never given them as much thought in all those rotations than I had in the last few. And only because suddenly all the vissigroths around me had begun to mate them.
I was interested in her answer though, because the idea of fathering my own son was growing on me and if a Leandar female wasn't going to live on Oceanus a human female would have to do.
"We live here," Niara said.
"That's not really an answer," I replied.
"Are you happy here?" she countered.
"Zyn," I laughed, "It's my realm."
"Define happiness then," she leaned against the reeling to look at me instead of the ocean ahead of us while a low rumble moved through the Nautica.
"We should go below," I took her arm, "the captain will want to dive."
On the way down the stairs, leading her to my quarters, I thought about her request and when we entered my cabin, I was ready for my reply.
"Happy as in not wanting to be somewhere else, happy as in enjoying life here, on Oceanus, most of the time."
His words still echoed in my mind when we entered his cabin and died right then. Never had I seen such luxury before. A long window ran from one side of the room to the other, giving a view of lapping water and I could just imagine what it would look like if this ship truly dove down into the depths.
