Mercenary Hearts

Mercenary Hearts


Chapter the Sixth: Farthest Outpost


Early March 2553

Shayya ‘Taham stood on the bridge of the military-grade transport Abundant Plenty, waiting for the vessel to decant from Slipspace. She was a striking figure, a mature Sangheili female just shy of fifty years of age, wearing some of the finest clothing that Sangheili ducats could buy. In truth, Shayya ‘Taham stood out wearing nothing at all. Her hide was so dark as to be almost black; her muzzle more square than round, her scales large and prominent. The Sangheili of the island keep of Qorop had been isolated from the mainland for so long in the time of savagery that they were almost a sub-species unto themselves, with different features, darker colouration, and a prominent accent. For all that she bore her husband’s name, only a blind creature would fail to notice that Shayya ‘Taham was an exotic beauty the likes of which was rarely seen outside of Qorop.

Earth. She’d seen the Covenant broadcasts, but they’d done almost nothing to tell her what the planet was like. The newscasts, obviously biased in time of war, described the Humans as uncultured savages; now, the Humans were the allies of the Sangheili, and hopefully they possessed at least some virtues that had been overlooked in time of war. Shayya had to admit she was nervous about interacting with the locals, so much so that she wouldn’t have done it for anyone but Usze.

Shayya felt fortunate to have had the means to travel to Earth in search of her son. The Covenant military did not allow civilian passengers on its vessels, and very few of the Sangheili passenger ships were flying beyond the immediate Sangheili colonies these days. Even for those who did not fear the rogue Admiral Xytan ‘Jar Wattin, Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar raiders, pirates, and worse lurked beyond the fringe of Sangheili space. Shayya’s husband, Tesli ‘Taham, was one of the few civilians who owned a large, legally armed, independently crewed military-grade transport like Abundant Plenty.

Tesli ‘Taham was a merchant, the owner of a prosperous series of factories that manufactured preserved foodstuffs. The factories employed many citizens in the city-state of ‘Taham. The ‘Taham citizens’ fervent loyalty towards their employer, who treated them as part of his extended family, gave Tesli a large degree of political power in addition to the wealth his business brought. While Tesli had enjoyed lucrative military contracts, he was fortunate that his products were popular planet-wide among the Sangheili civilians as well. If the military downsized in the wake of the current upheavals, Tesli’s products would still be in demand.

Shayya shivered, remembering the anonymous death threats she and Tesli had been receiving ever since it became publicly known that her son, Usze ‘Taham, had abandoned the Ascetics in support of the Arbiter.

It made no sense. Sins were to be visited upon the offender and all of his line—but who decided what was sin any longer? The Ascetics, who had once been the role models for all of Sanghelios to emulate, even before the dawn of the Covenant? Or this new Arbiter, the one whose alliance with the Humans was perhaps the only reason there were any Sangheili still alive?

Regardless, though the Arbiter had promised to ensure the safety of her family, Shayya had decided that the time was right for her and her husband to visit her son Usze on Earth. They had taken Abundant Plenty, and set out for the Human homeworld, accompanied by a crew hand-picked by Tesli and a set of bodyguards provided by Admiral Rtas ‘Vadum. Until the discontent on Sanghelios settled, Tesli felt his family would be safer on the Prospere colony, a small planet owned entirely by the ‘Taham mercantile corporation. It was their next destination after Earth.

‘Vadum had also promised to arrange clearance with the Humans, so that they would not be alarmed by the arrival of an unexpected alien vessel in their planetspace. Shayya had asked him not to tell Usze that they were coming. The Admiral had grinned and promised not to ruin the surprise, and Shayya had simply let him go on believing that an innocent bit of fun was all she had planned.

The truth was, she had a terrible feeling that something was wrong with her favourite son.

Usze should not have been her favourite of her eighteen children. She had been married to Tesli ‘Taham at a young age, just after her second breeding, to forge an alliance between the small and impoverished island keep of Qorop and the prosperous ‘Taham city-state. The Qorop Kaidon had hoped this alliance would increase his keep’s ability to sell goods and raw materials to the ‘Taham factories. For the good of her people, Shayya ‘Qorop had gone south to marry a ‘Taham son.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the relationship between the sixteen year old daughter of the Qorop Kaidon and the sickly twenty year old son of the ‘Taham factory magnate had rapidly become a love match. Shayya had not cared that Tesli ‘Taham was often ill in the aftermath of a childhood disease that had ruined his immune system and left him too weak for the rigours of combat; he was incredibly smart, had a talent for business, and showered her with kindness. Nor did he hesitate at the fact that she looked so different from the females to whom he was accustomed. Shayya’s sisters had married warriors, some of whom were cruel, or boring, or foolish—Shayya quickly came to scorn their pity, for inside Tesli’s spindly body was the soul of a hero.

Two years later, Shayya and Tesli were formally bonded; the resulting reception party had spread to the whole state of ‘Taham. The following year, when Tesli’s father died, he inherited the business and became the new pillar of the ‘Taham city-state.

And, unfortunately, the resulting publicity had cast a shadow upon their house.

Somewhere, the Ascetic Swordsman Toha ‘Sumai had seen an image of Shayya and become determined to have the exotic female for his own.

Most Swordsmen did not press their claims on married females when the females were also bonded to their mates. Toha ‘Sumai did. Nothing Tesli said or did could change his mind. Tesli ‘Taham had even offered Toha the entire wealth of his factory; ‘Sumai had cuffed him across the face and refused, demanding what was his by right.

Shayya had been given no choice in the matter.

Perhaps she could have fought the bastard, but for Tesli’s sake, she did not. She remembered the sickening sight of Tesli falling to his knees from Toha’s blow, and for all Toha was a great Swordsman, the fact that he would use his strength to terrorize a cripple made her sick.

Shayya had hated every second of her mating with Toha ‘Sumai. He had not brutalized her, had not hit her, had not screamed at her or insulted her, but she had not appreciated his caresses or his compliments, and no matter what he had done to her, he had not pleasured her. In the end he had simply taken his own pleasure and left, while she had gone, cringing, back to Tesli.

Her husband had prepared a warm bath for her and he had entered it with her, had helped to clean her, until eventually they had wept in one another’s arms.

Shayya had hoped that her body might reject Toha’s seed, but it had not, and in two weeks’ time she had laid an egg.

What had surprised her was that Tesli had treated this egg just as he had those that had contained his own young.

Shayya had not known it was possible to fall in love twice, but when the egg hatched, when Tesli picked up the child for the first time and declared that he would name “his son” Usze ‘Taham, Shayya’s affection for Tesli had grown to a point that Shayya had not realized was possible. Usze would be that rare child that had a surname that did not match either of his biological parents, for Tesli ‘Taham had been determined to treat the boy like his own son.

There had been five years of happiness and then Toha’s shadow had returned.

Thankfully, it was not Toha himself. Instead, it was a representative of the Ascetic Order whose name Shayya had forgotten. The Ascetics were all the same, so calm and restrained as they pronounced their judgments, all faceless behind the blade-faced armour. The Ascetic had told her that Usze ‘Taham would enter special training to become a member of the Order, by the word of his father, Toha ‘Sumai.

Usze began to spend most of his time in the company of the Ascetics, coming home only on selected occasions. And as the years passed, Shayya watched her clever, talented, affectionate son slip away from her, until he became nothing but an Ascetic in miniature, cold and distant, emotionless, condemning anything that could not match him, his face as blank as the helmet he came to wear after his graduation from the Iruiru War College. The Ascetics had stripped him bare, and the only thing that remained of her son was his talent.

Oh, his talent. He was a demon with a blade, the top graduate of his year at the War College in Iruiru, and a master of tactics. Shayya was so very proud of him, even as she feared what his strict devotion might mean to anyone around him who failed to meet the punishing standards he himself upheld every day.

And so, when she had heard that Usze had betrayed the Ascetics to protect the Arbiter, she was not certain what to think.

Usze had shown defiance before. He had refused to allow the Prophets to put him on their ceremonial honour guard; his allegiance had always been to the Ascetics and Sanghelios first. Like most of the Ascetics, while he paid lip service to the Covenant, his soul was pledged to a deeper purpose—the old-fashioned Sangheili ideal of the Perfect Warrior that formed the basis of the order.

Shayya could not even begin to imagine what could have caused Usze to betray the Order, for which he had almost given his life—his refusal to join the Honour Guard had led to multiple assassination attempts, all of which failed at the point of Usze’s blade.

And now Usze was the Sangheilian ambassador to this alien world.

She had also heard rumours about his new life, though she had received little confirmation in fact. One rumour stated that Usze had a bonded mate; another that he had been injured in an altercation with the renegade Xytan ‘Jar Wattin’s loyalists. Rtas ‘Vadum had confirmed an injury and the idea made Shayya sick with worry. Usze had always pushed himself so hard; how would he cope?

And then there was his alleged mate, N’tho ‘Sraom. Shayya bit down on her mandibles. The crew had told her plenty of stories about N’tho ‘Sraom, and none of them were complimentary.

It galled her to think that her Usze was giving himself sexually to such a filthy creature as ‘Sraom. Usze must be desperate, to mate with ‘Sraom in exchange for support and care. What had ‘Sraom forced Usze to do to earn his keep?

He wants to live, Shayya said to herself. She had to think of the positive. She had been surprised that Usze had chosen to recover from his injury at all. Traditional Ascetic thinking stated that death was more honourable than a life spent burdening others.

Usze had always embraced the teachings of the Ascetics wholeheartedly, and Shayya hated what those teachings had done to him. Forced into the footsteps of his biological father, the Ascetic Order had burned the heart out of her son, and left a ruthless avatar behind.

And yet she still loved him. She loved those precious moments when she saw, peeking through the Ascetic mask, a glimpse of the boy that was her son. She treasured the letters he had sent to her, one a week without fail, every week of his life. She was certain he still loved her in whatever way he was still capable of love.

She would care for him, Shayya vowed. She would spirit him away in the middle of the night and take him with them when they fled for the Prospere colony. Whatever N’tho had done to him, she would work to mend.

Perhaps they would find some eligible female Sangheili on the Prospere colony; perhaps one of them would be right for Usze. He was no longer a Swordsman; he could marry and start a family. And if there were no good females for her son…then Shayya would tend him herself, for as long as it took.

*-*-*-*

Kya ‘Pomor came awake in the early hours before dawn. She still found it odd that the planet was so dark during the rest cycle—on Sanghelios there was always at least one sun in the sky—but it did make it easier to tell time.

Piro was still sound asleep beside her, breathing deeply. Kya fidgeted nervously. She had come to terms with the idea of treating Piro as she had treated her fellow medical personnel—as a friend to spend time with, share assistance with, and, yes, maybe even to mate with—but the idea of lying here and waiting for Piro to wake up made her feel uncomfortable. It was too much like what a consort would do.

She was not Piro ‘Kipaz’s consort and she did not want the old warrior to get the wrong idea. She might be doubly shamed, as a convicted criminal and a medical worker, but she had never allowed anyone to control her sexuality, or her right to give or withhold her favours as she saw fit. Many of her fellow medical personnel had traded their bodies and their independence for improved social standing or material goods, but she had refused to bow to anyone. Her life had been harder, but her decisions were her own; that, to Kya ‘Pomor, was worth more than rich food or feigned respect from those who had cast her out.

The only one who had ever come close to taking control of Kya’s body was Toha ‘Sumai. Kya liked to think that she regained her sovereignty when she killed her rapist with his own rifle. It might have been more just to let him die slowly of the massive damage Usze had inflicted on him with a gravity hammer, but…no. It had been important to Kya to be the one who had ended his life.
She was beginning to…

…grow fond of, she told herself…

…Piro ‘Kipaz. She did not want to have to shoot him, so she could not have him thinking that she belonged to him, or that she did not have the right to sleep with another male Sangheili should one present himself. Or female, Kya thought, though in truth she had never found female mates particularly satisfying. In principle, she could mate with anyone.

So, to disabuse Piro ‘Kipaz of the notion that she belonged in his bed, she slipped out from under his sheets into the chilly morning air. She padded across the floor, opened the door, and closed it quietly behind her.

*-*-*-*

Kya had not been sure how Piro would act the next time she saw him. He walked into the mess while she was eating breakfast with Gita.

It had taken a while for Kya to explain why she did not like to see humans eating eggs for breakfast. The cooked chicken eggs reminded Kya far too much of smashed Sangheili eggs. She found the very idea revolting. Gita, out of respect for her friend, chose bagels instead when she ate breakfast with Kya.

Kya had a mouthful of flayed ham lodge in her throat when Piro entered, but the older warrior had simply wished them both a good morning and continued on his way to pick up a sausage patty and English muffin.

Normal. Piro was acting as though nothing had happened.

Kya could do normal.

*-*-*-*

Kya was in the incubator room, watching her eggs, when she heard the door open behind her.

She did not turn her head. A deep breath was enough for her nose to tell her that it was Piro.

He walked over to her. She gritted her mandibles, expecting him to place his hands on her shoulders or perhaps grip her arm in the sort of proprietary gesture that was too common to male Sangheili. Mating did not make her his property. Fortunately, she had years of practice in putting males into their place.

But Piro did not touch her. Instead he pulled up another chair and sat next to her, near but not too close, watching the eggs.

“They’re beautiful,” he said at last. “It’s hard to imagine that in a few short weeks we will have the first of two young ones zipping about.”

Kya nodded non-committally.

“You will have much to teach me,” he said quietly. “N’tho was fifteen before I began to parent him in earnest.”

Kya stared at him in surprise. It was not traditional for Sangheili fathers to raise children; most children did not even know who their fathers were, save in a general clan sense to prevent inbreeding. “You wish to…”

Piro gave her an almost guilty smile. “Humour me. I have no ties to my siblings, no one to give me nieces and nephews, and precious few duties on this strange world.”

Kya shrugged. Her siblings had disowned her long ago, and even if they had not, they were not on Earth. She would have no one else to fulfill the traditional uncle role for her young. Why not?

“I think I can do that,” she replied.

Piro rose from his chair. “I promised N’tho I would join him for…he says we are watching something called “hockey”…but first…” The old Sangheili scratched at the back of his neck with his left hand while his right dipped into the carrying compartment in his armour. “I, ah…I have something for you.”

Piro leaned forward, took her hand, and pressed something cool and thin-edged into her palm.

Kya looked down at the object and recognized it as a key card for the barracks apartments. She had a similar card for her own room.

She had no doubt about whose door this card would open.

Kya sighed. She had brought this on herself for falling back into her thieving ways. When would she ever learn that the price of being caught was always higher than the rewards she earned?

And now she had to pay for her crime with her body.

She gritted her teeth, reminding herself that this was Piro, who was a far kinder warden than her mother or Toha ‘Sumai. He would not scar her or shame her and even the sexual toll would be tolerable, perhaps even pleasant…

“Tonight?” she asked him, trying not to sound bitter.

His eyes widened as though she had shocked him. She must have failed to hide her feelings entirely.

“If you wish,” he replied gently, and was that a nervous twitch in his mandibles? “Any time you wish.”

*-*-*-*

Kya stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. As she crossed the room to her bed, her eyes fell on the little key card on her dresser.

If you wish.

Well, maybe she didn’t wish. What would Piro ‘Kipaz make of that?

Kya put on her strange bedclothes…a wide necked T-shirt and a pair of cotton shorts printed all over with images that Private Cyr told her were “cartoon characters”…and crept into her own bed. The Human sleepwear was comfortable, for all it looked strange. She no longer wanted to wear her nightshirt after that encounter with Piro; it resembled a breeding gown too closely for her to feel secure about wearing it any longer.

Kya curled up and wondered how long it would take for Piro to come knocking on her door.

Before she knew it, she was waking up to a ray of sunshine on her face.

Morning already?

Kya’s shock was followed by a completely irrational urge to pull the blankets over her head and sulk.

She told herself that she was grateful that Piro had apparently meant “if you wish” literally, but a petulant part of her insisted that surely she was entertaining enough in bed for Piro to pursue…

*-*-*-*

Kya continued to sleep in her own room and, much to her eventual frustration, Piro ‘Kipaz did not say a word about it.

Apparently Kya had mistaken Piro’s interest in her post-mating. Their sexual relationship must only have been a series of pity fucks and some wishful thinking on Piro’s part. She should be thankful he respected her too much to pressure her to continue acting as a stand-in for his deceased bondmate.

Perversely, Kya was not as thankful as she ought to be.

She told herself sternly that she could not indulge in such girlish foolishness. She did not need mooning males telling her she was attractive, she did not need to primp and preen herself, and she did not need to embarrass herself by developing an inappropriate attraction to a much older male who, in the light of day, treated her as though she were his beloved niece.

She should look at Piro as a generous and kind uncle, and treat him accordingly.

But then, one night, her ghosts came back to haunt her.