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It was strange to be back in her home system, on the royal planet where she’d visited Nash and the queen on multiple occasions. Kaita’s family had made a point to spend time at court during the cycle, hoping she would get close to one of the princes.
Not that it really mattered since they had to battle each other one day anyway, but her parents had thought that a bond between royal houses would be to her benefit. Someone would win, and marrying among royalty was always preferred as it upped the chances of getting into the position of king or queen even if it might be as the consort and not the ruler.
The last few days had been absolute hell, having to watch her people suffer and not being able to do anything about it just yet.
Kaita couldnotwaste this opportunity.
There it was. She crossed the street carefully, keeping her head down and slipped into the tavern with the wolf over the door. It was one of the few businesses still open. The male behind the counter organizing the bar didn’t even look up as she walked past him to the patron’s meeting room behind it.
Many of their contacts would keep their secret, but they could not take any part of it. There were monitors everywhere – drones and bots…every step—every breath was a risk.
“There you are,” Mak breathed, his entire posture relieved when she dropped her disguise. “It’s been nearly an hour past the time you were supposed to return. What happened?”
“Nothing happened,” she reassured him, reactivating her disguise. Kaita pitched her voice as low as she could. “I simply had to be careful. But it looks like Valdis is right, they’re about to bring another batch of slaves to the palace.”
This was the riskiest part of the plan and there were so many ways it could go wrong.
“When are they bringing them in?” Delphine asked. The pirate captain had joined her on this particular mission instead of taking one of the military bases, and therefore Roxy had as well.
“In a few hours,” Kaita said, glancing at Mak as she fiddled with her beacon on the string around her neck. “Others have reported in. They will be in every military building and slave holding station across the system. We have one hour once we’re in the palace to take it. The moment we cross the threshold I will light the beacon. Adelina and her forces will come. That is the time I’ve told everyone else to begin their attack. If we’re late…it has to be perfect. Everything has to happen at the same time or we risk slaughtering our own people due to our mistakes.”
Mak nodded as did the small squad that had come with her, the same crew and guards that had been with Kaita from the very beginning. She couldn’t be more grateful to be doing something this important with them by her side.
And Captain Delphine would be worth her weight in gold. Kaita looked to Roxy and assumed she’d be just as skilled if Adelina had let her in her personal legion.
At first Kaita hadn’t wanted to bring any females down to the surface of the planets. The risks were too great, but Roxy and Delphine had insisted, as had most of her warriors. Thank goodness for Adelina’s top notch disguises.
Kaita knew that Neprijat tech was far beyond theirs. As long as the enemy didn’t look too closely though, the disguises were enough to pass. They simply had to make sure they didn’t do anything to bring attention to themselves.
“Pretending to be slaves is the only way we can get that many people into the palace,” Valdis muttered, checking his simulcast for the thousandth time. “Whatever the risk, it’s lower than any other plan.”
“I told you, we’re going to get your lover,” Kaita snapped. “We’re not changing the plan, so just relax.”
Valdis grumbled under his breath but didn’t press his luck.
Nearly two days of dealing with him and Kaita was ready to wring his neck.
Flying into Khara had been a nightmare, but the Neprijat ships had flight patterns and locations already programed into the consoles. As long as they hadn’t deviated from the normal routes, none of the Neprijat had looked twice.
Just to be safe the pirates and privateers had caused a distraction once they crossed the border, firing on the various Neprijat outposts on planets and stations. It ensured their stolen ships were nothing more than a blip on the radar they couldn’t be bothered to double check.
Then the pirates had disappeared with their strange tech they’d cobbled together from a hundred systems. They would be back though at the same time her warriors had been told to take each Neprijat military post and slave pen on every planet in Khara.
Once freed her people would join the fight.
And if Kaita couldn’t take the palace and the king…she didn’t want to think about that at the moment.
But she’d had a bit of luck when they’d first landed. It had been easy enough to slip into the city in the middle of the night and disappear, leaving the stolen ships in the hangars where they wouldn’t look out of place. Where they’d be there, waiting for the appointed time to burst into a million pieces when the self-destruct command went off.
What Kaita hadn’t anticipated was how many Neprijat would be on her planets. They walked around as if they owned the place – all warriors. Some checked on businesses, some were stationed on corners, and still others searched the planets looking for more slaves.
Some of her people were allowed to continue with their lives, but the why was never really clear. The Neprijat had instated new laws and curfews…it made everything a thousand times more difficult.
And what was the most worrisome was the lack of hounds. Where were they and why weren’t they around? Did the Neprijat have them locked up or was she going to run into a herd of them at some point, completely unprepared?
Kaita shuddered and rolled her shoulders back. The cloak covering most of her armor was from Valdis’s city home. Passing as one of his guards was easy enough and gave them an excuse to see each other often, but…
She sighed and drummed her fingers on the table. “So you’re going to lead us into the palace and say we haven’t conformed to the new laws. Then you will state that you’ve found some females that might interest the king.”
