Every step sent painful twinges through my side, but I ignored them. I’d grown weary of receiving reports from mymajakwhile I lay in bed, nursed attentively by Jasmine. Being in bed with my Raisa should have been like ascending to Zedna itself, but I’d been too wounded to do what I wanted to do to her, and a week away from my command deck had been more than enough.Despite protests from the healer and the resistance of my body to moving quickly, it was time for me to return to my post.
"Being Raas is not easy," Venik admitted, assuming his position beside me. "I have newfound respect for what you manage every day."
I grunted, partially in answer and partially in pain. “It's only hard because you didn’t have a greatmajakand battle chief like I've always had. With officers like you and Kolt—" I stopped mid-sentence, suddenly registering what I wasn't seeing. “Is our battle chief in hisoblek?”
Venik's eyes shuttered and his postured stiffened. “He is not.” Mymajakreleased a heavy sigh. "I was going to come tell you. Jasmine said you were well enough, but I won't lie to you, Raas. I put it off."
My gut clenched. "Tell me," I said, keeping my voice level through sheer force of will.
"Kolt did not return with us from the planet." Venik's words were measured, but pain roiled underneath. "The last time he was seen, he was saving Jasmine's friend from the clutches of the Imperial soldiers holding her hostage. He killed them. Told the other Vandar to run ahead, that he'd bring Skye and catch up. The last thing anyone saw was him untying Skye and checking that she was unhurt. Then the fighting intensified. When we evacuated, we expected them to be on the second transport. They weren't."
"And what of Skye?" I demanded, my heart pounding and sending fresh waves of agony through my body. "Did we get her? Is she here?"
Venik shook his head. "They are missing together, Raas. We sent raiders down to the surface to search several times, but we found no trace of either of them. Then the ice storms swept through that planet, and we had to call off the search."
The wound in my side throbbed in time with my racing heart. My battle chief who'd fought with me for years and who'd saved my life more times than I could count, was gone? And Jasmine's friend, the one I'd promised to save, was also gone?
"Are we presuming they're dead?" The words tasted like ash.
"No." Venik's response was immediate and firm. "The warbird picked up a small vessel leaving the planet during the battle. A vessel with no Imperial markings or signature. They couldn't follow it since we were all still on the surface, but the command crew tracked it until it vanished into hyperspace."
I rubbed a hand across my forehead, feeling the tension building behind my eyes. "Could that have been them? Could they have been taken?"
Venik's shoulder twitched in what might have been a shrug. "We don't know. The timing is right, but we have no confirmation.”
My blood ran cold. "If they were taken, we will find them. We've been scouring the galaxy since, I assume?"
"Every available resource," Venik confirmed. "I've had teams monitoring Imperial communications, tracking every ship, and following every lead no matter how small, but it's like searching for a needle in a stack of Verinthian grass."
I looked out at the view of space where there were endless stars, infinite possibilities, and countless places two people could be hidden. Then I thought of Kolt, who'd escaped Imperial capturetwice before and who was too stubborn and too skilled to die easily. If there was anyone who could survive being taken by the Empire, it was him.
"Then we will find them. We are Vandar. We never give up on our own."
"Never," Venik echoed, and the word was taken up by warriors across the deck.
No one took my battle chief. No one broke promises I'd made to my Raisa.
Feeling a renewed rush of purpose, I turned to Venik. "Tell me everything we know. Every scrap of intelligence, every intercepted communication, and everywhere we've searched. I want it all."
Venik's grin was fierce. "Yes, Raas."
Kolt was alive, and we were going to find him. Then whoever had taken him was going to learn exactly why the galaxy feared the Qeth’rex.
Chapter 44
Kolt
First there was pain, then sound, and then the uncomfortable sensation of being dragged. I jerked to consciousness with a start, ready to fight.
But there would be no fighting. My hands were in heavy, metal chains that rattled with each movement, the weight pulling at my wrists and shoulders. My head throbbed like someone had taken a battle axe to it repeatedly, and my thoughts were fuzzy at best.
I remembered being on a frozen planet.. I remembered fighting Imperial soldiers. I remembered the frigid cold of Lexxona, but I clearly wasn't on that frozen planet anymore.
The air here was steamy, thick with humidity that slicked my skin and beaded my brow. Wherever I was, it was hot. The complete opposite of Lexxona.
I was too groggy to fight back as rough hands pulled me down a ramp and onto dusty, dry land. The sun was so bright I had to squint against it, which only made my head hurt worse. My legsdidn't want to support my weight properly, and my muscles were sluggish and unresponsive.
Had I been drugged? That would explain the fog in my mind and the way my body wasn't obeying commands the way it should.
