The Cook's Game (Warriors Book 2), page 1
The Cook’s Game
Warriors: Book II
L. P. Peace
© 2021 L.P. Peace
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
lucyppeace@gmail.com
www.lucypeace.com
Cover by Sam Muraski
Editing by Ly Publishing
Contents
Blurb
Glossary of Terms
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Universal Menagerie
Also by L. P. Peace
Reading Order
About the Author
A brilliant mind!
When Keral came searching for the human female who escaped her slavery he found her hiding in the bowels of Caras station. Informed Addison needs extra care, Keral is determined to take away all her worries.
Yet instead of a fragile mind, he finds a woman who outshines any he’s ever met, in intelligence, bravery and beauty.
But in such a lawless place how can he keep her safe?
Glossary of Terms
Standard IGC measurements
Hacri - Hour
Metri - Minutes
Scira - Seconds
Madith - Miles
Fenth - Foot/feet
Inith/iniths - Inch/inches
Rote - Day
Cycle – month
Solar - Year
Common Amaran insults
Vrok - Fuck
Vrokking - Fucking
Durv - Shit
Durev - Shithead
Vashni - Idiot
Keth - Scum
for those of you already familiar with the series, this book starts just before the events at the IGC and finishes just after.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with this world, you can download The Captain’s Promise free from BookFunnel.
Keral followed Kadian out of the whorehouse and back into the central well of Caras Station. No one here had any idea that they’d just extorted the most powerful slaver in known space. It was an interaction that left Keral feeling… unclean. Not because of the nature of brothels, there wasn’t a single alien working in this place who wanted or deserved to be here. If Keral could have, he would cut the throat of every vrokker here so he could bring the slaves back to Tessa. Give them a better life. Give them hope.
Even Evanin. The poor Ualhan that had somehow managed to fall in love with probably the most sadistic vrok Keral had ever had the misfortune of meeting.
Poor vrokker!
Kadian stepped onto the gantry way and stood by the central space for a moment. Though his eyes were on a ship descending through the levels towards the airlock far below, his mind was on the human face he’d stared at inside—the face of the female he loved.
‘I’m going,’ Kadian said. He looked at Keral, a plea for understanding in his eyes.
‘I know. Good luck, and if you have any issues, you know where to find us.’
Kadian walked away, heading to the dock.
Keral watched him go for a moment before turning in the opposite direction and walking at a slightly more leisurely pace to allow Kadian to get back to the lift before him. It wouldn’t do for them to be seen together too much, not after the durv they’d just pulled in the whorehouse.
Getting back to his level, he arrived in time to see Kadian’s ship passing by his docking space. Keral walked to the end of the platform and looked out over the opening, watching as Kadian’s ship entered the airlock. The doors closed.
‘Find your female, friend.’
Something in those words taunted him.
After three hundred solars, Keral had given up any chance of ever finding a female, someone to share a life with. It was difficult finding a mate as his race was so long-lived. There was only one other race that shared their longevity, and nothing would make him turn to their creators for a mate.
Then, five solars ago, Keral’s best friend had stumbled upon the most incredible discovery. Protectorate males weren’t genetically engineered, lab-grown soldiers. They were genetically altered. Each of them had been a man once with lives on Earth. That was until the event the humans referred to as The Violation happened. One night, in Earth’s mid-twenty-first century, the Cealin had come to the small planet, and in less than an hacri, in an Earth hour, they’d stolen over fifty thousand human men. Throughout many solars, their creator had genetically altered them and wiped their memories. They’d intended on sending them back to Earth to conquer the planet, but instead, Keral and his people, led by their leader, Thanesh, had fought their way to freedom.
They managed to make their way in a galaxy that took advantage of those deemed lesser or weaker. Keral and his brothers weren’t less or weak. Yet despite their long lives, they had no females, and after their three hundred solars, they’d only produced twelve hybrid children—all male.
To all intents and purposes, they had no future.
But they were originally human. As much as Keral wanted to stick a long hot knife into the ribs of Kallis, their Cealin creator, he had always planned for them to breed with human females. Had planned it so well that the venom Keral and his brothers created was explicitly designed to rewrite the DNA of human females, making them Protectorate. It was also intended to bring their females great pleasure in bed, something Keral would not be able to experience until the rote he found his mate.
And that was where Keral’s mind now turned.
Kallis had recently resumed his experiments. Over several solars, he’d created a further seven thousand Tessans; three thousand of those were female. Keral had been sure to meet them all, yet none had sparked even the faintest desire to mate. Not that they weren’t attractive, but there was a call the other males of his people had described. A knowing, and Keral hadn’t felt it.
Keral had known something like love once, or at least he thought he had. The Kuyon mother of his son, Garen. But she had found her true bondmates and left them, abandoning her young son into Keral’s care.
In his long life, she was the only one he’d ever gotten close to loving. Seeing Kadian and the way he reacted to this human, seeing Thanesh with his mate Alethia, Keral had come to the conclusion that he’d never actually known love. Not the kind of love Kadian was experiencing. Not the kind of possessive, obsessive love Thanesh and the males of his race were prone to, thanks to their Sehn genes when they found their true mate.
Keral was beginning to fear that Kallis had made a mistake with him. Or worse, maybe the sadistic vrok had designed him to be this way.
Perhaps Keral would go through the many centuries of his long life completely alone, watching his brothers find their mates until he was a bitter, toxic old male. The thought sent a chill up his spine.
Keral realised he was still staring at the airlock metri after Kadian had gone. ‘What the vrok am I being maudlin for?’ he grumbled.
Turning, he went back to his ship and hit the control on the gauntlet he wore. The ramp to his ship, Sarya, lowered, allowing Keral to climb on board. He closed the ramp behind him and walked straight to the bridge.
The bridge could house a crew of several or one. As the Protectorate were so well known and strong, a unit of several could only ever be considered an invasion, especially in a place like Caras, where the law was an optional extra.
He powered up the ship and engaged a secure, tight beam to the small probe he’d attached to the hull. Caras was also an asteroid, one of millions in an asteroid field, and most of the station’s hull was thick stone. The probe had drilled through a small section of the hull, securing a transmitter that would bypass all of Caras systems and allow him to talk to Thanesh in person without fear of being monitored.
‘Keral. About vrokking time. Do you have it?’
‘Good to see you too, Thanesh. Where’s that beautiful mate of yours?’
Thanesh’s face was impassive. ‘Alethia is with Rhona right now, getting ready for the formal Amaran event tonight.’
‘Ha! Did I tell you how glad I am you sent me here?’
Thanesh smiled. ‘I can hold my own with diplomacy. I’m sure you’d start a fight just for fun.’
Keral grunted in agreement as he uploaded the data file to Sarya’s system and transmitted it to Thanesh. ‘Here ya go—a full list of all of the sales done for Tolomus since Endurance was taken. There were several females sold at the meat market. I’ve looked, but they went quickly. I’m going to hunt down the traders who bought them and beat the information out of them, but it’ll have to be the last thing I do after I find the human, or Galdranis’s vashni will throw me out the airlock.’
Thanesh’s eyes were running down the screen, no doubt looking at the list of sales.
‘Sounds good. If we have to, we’ll send in other agents later. But from what Zoe says about this female, she’s particularly vulnerable. I wanted my best soldier on it.’
‘Should have sent him then,’ Keral joked. ‘But I’ll make sure I get her anyhow.’ A small chuckle breached Thanesh’s grim exterior, but his eyes never left the list. ‘Any word on the human males sold to the Illadar?’
‘Yes.’ Thanesh’s features grew taut. ‘The Illadar Kaita told me to vrok myself. He has no intention of letting them go, and I have no intention of letting them stay.’
‘So… war?’
‘War,’ Thanesh agreed. ‘Thankfully, they’re not part of the IGC. From tomorrow, that would have been a problem.’
‘So you expect membership to go through as planned?’ Keral leaned closer to the screen.
Thanesh looked at him. ‘I expect nothing. That way I’m never disappointed. But we will see. I do expect the human application will go through but be close. I have heard whispers that Hekalion Dar is blackmailing several of our allies. But I have plans.’
‘Wouldn’t expect anything less,’ Keral said. ‘You know, I’ve looked for the Kaita here. The one who was supposed to be their leader. He’s missing.’
‘Vrok! He was a part of my plans for the Ilidar. Last I heard, he helped Daris and Zoe get off Caras. Keral, get a bead on him. I want him found.’
Keral nodded. Thanesh had used his name, so he was serious. Not that Thanesh was ever not serious. He didn’t want to think what Thanesh and Alethia’s bedroom was like. Lots of formality, no doubt! But Thanesh had degrees of seriousness. After being his best friend for three hundred solars, Keral knew that when Thanesh said his name aloud, it was the highest level of Thanesh’s seriousness.
‘Second to the human, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Keral agreed.
‘We are going for the meeting tomorrow, so it will all be settled. Once it’s done, I will send you a message confirming it.’
Keral nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘Did you hurt him?’
‘Didn’t need to. Turns out that prostitute Tolomus visits; he loves him. All we had to do was threaten him.’
‘Interesting. Perhaps we could buy the Ualha and bring him to Tessa. Free him.’
Keral barked out a laugh. ‘That would certainly be interesting.’
‘Take care, Keral. Find the Kaita and the girl. Come back.’
‘What the vrok are you being so sentimental for?’
Thanesh grinned briefly, then shook his head. ‘I have a bad feeling, Keral.’
Keral sat back in his seat and stared at the sincerity in his friend’s eyes. Thanesh was brilliant. He thought in ways that left Keral feeling like the biggest vashni who ever travelled the stars. The fact that Thanesh had taken him on as his second-in-command of the Protectorate and the fleet and now a whole vrokking planet made Keral simultaneously proud and fearful that should the time come, he could never live up to the example Thanesh had set. That he was worried scared Keral more than he could put into words.
‘Watch your back,’ Keral said. ‘Watch that female of yours, and if the trumpets of war start to sound, know we’re built for this, designed for this. We’ll burn them all down if we have to.’
Thanesh nodded, his features tight. ‘Yes, we are. These vrokkers do not know us.’
‘They will. If they force us.’
After the call was done, Keral sat on the bridge for a long time, thinking about his friend’s words and the things he hadn’t said.
The Protectorate Empire.
It was Thanesh’s biggest fear. That one rote, he would become like the Cealin and begin to conquer instead of protect.
In recent solars, they’d begun to call it The Tessan Empire. They said it back and forth as a warning, as a reminder that though they were bred for war, they’d chosen another way. Not that they hadn’t also chosen war. They’d fought for the Amarans for decades. Sold their services to worlds across known space for decades more, accruing credits and saving, building ships and making plans. Their little web of space was there to draw an easy border between worlds and as a threat to those who would invade their clients: you do this, you will have us to deal with. Not the worlds you’re trying to invade, but us, the Protectorate.
But it was a threat to them as well. They could so easily close the web, and worlds that paid them for protection would suddenly be paying them the tithe as forced subjects of an empire. It terrified Thanesh, and sometimes Keral woke up at night, his sheets soaking with sweat from images of distant dreams that sometimes haunted his waking hacri.
They had promised a long time ago that there was only one scenario that would force them to take that road.
Membership in the IGC was a step away from that fearful fate. If the IGC turned them down, then Keral worried they would come to war. If Alethia were harmed, or gods forbid, killed, then Thanesh would reign death and fire upon them all.
If that happened, Thanesh had informed him it was his job to put an end to him.
For his friend, he would do it.
Keral let out a sigh. Standing, he headed back out into the station, forcing his mind to return to the task at hand.
There was nothing like the flesh market to remind Keral how much he hated some people!
Keral braced himself as he left the dark bazaar and made the turn that took him to that hateful place. Caras was a draw to otherwise respectable citizens from the races surrounding the criminal space station. Keral spotted several members from surrounding space. A couple of blue-haired Bataarin went by him, their hair cut short showing they’d been dishonourably discharged from their military. An Udari went by, a long sword protruding over his tall form. They looked almost human but were much bigger, their features sharper; he pulled a Zavi slave on a leash behind him.
Keral gritted his teeth and forged ahead.
There had to be thirty-five slaves in the pods hanging from the ceiling. Several of them were larger races; he saw a Horran female thrashing inside one. A Vholin had her decorative, delicate wings wrapped around her body which was coloured in greys, purples and teals. She sat inside, her knees curled up, her head pressed to them, hiding her face.
The rest of the slaves were from the familiar races. Keral walked around, searching for the human crew of the ship. He didn’t hold out much hope; it had been a cycle since the ship was attacked and the crew taken. According to the faces he’d seen on the data packet they took from Tolomus, the females sold to the stallholders were attractive. There was no way they were still here.
Keral looked anyway.
He also identified those stallholders who’d purchased the humans. Two had gone to a Tealva—his white eyes stared out at Keral as he passed. Keral looked up at the pods over his stall, and an Aavani and four Mvari looked down at him. This slaver had more business ties with Bentari than others, if his stock was anything to go by.
In a circuitous route, he walked around to the stall of the Ledaan female who’d taken two more of the humans. She looked at him, her eyes rounding with surprise before she gave him a heated look. Keral returned the smile, feeling sick. But if a little harmless flirting could get the buyers of the two humans, he had to at least try. Looking up, he could see a selection of different slaves hanging in the space over her stall. Most were from the slave races, but two were from larger races. They were still, and Keral realised there were lines feeding into their arms. Something to keep them docile, no doubt, or unconscious.
