Kiera's Sun (#2, Anshan Saga)

Chapter Four

"A'Ran, Romas, just think for a moment about what you're doing!"

Jetr stood between the warriors, each of which was being restrained by his respective guards.

A'Ran had not experienced this level of fury since the moment he discovered Kiera was on the planet when he destroyed it. It blinded him, made him disregard any thought about peace and trade treaties, no matter how much his people needed them.

"Separate them!" Mansr ordered in a tone not even the Qatwalis were going to ignore.

Against his will, A'Ran was all but dragged from the atrium into a small chamber. He yanked free of his men, who moved swiftly to block the door.

The blind rage ebbed enough for him to realize he'd almost killed Romas. His own nose was bloodied, and at least one swipe of a sword had penetrated his guard and cut him deep enough to bleed. Romas had been in little better shape when their scuffle was broken up.

"Everyone out!" Mansr commanded, entering. He was stiff, his face flushed with anger.

The warriors obeyed.

A'Ran growled deep in his chest and touched the warm trickle of blood running down his face.

Mansr waited until the last warrior was gone before he closed the door. "Dhjan or not, you're behaving like a child!" he snapped.

Surprised by the outburst from the man who had been among the first to treat him as the dhjan, A'Ran paused in his pacing.

"Really, A'Ran! What possessed you to do something so stupid? To risk the armistice or the air purifiers?"

"My lifemate is missing!" A'Ran roared in response.

"If you'd bothered to ask before attacking him, you'd know his lifemate is gone as well!"

A'Ran made a disgusted sound and whirled, pacing once more.

"An unidentified craft entered the air space above the palace and left shortly after landing. They had no clearance and went unchallenged, since the Qatwali are too proud to tell anyone the truth – the planet is vulnerable. They are giving the appearance of rebuilding, but they have no funds. They're cannibalizing existing systems, to include defensive systems now that we're at peace, to rebuild."

A'Ran faced him again. "How do you know this?"

"How do you think, nephew?" Mansr replied.

"Jetr." A'Ran's calm began to return. "So they just let anyone who wishes to enter their air space fly in and kidnap royals without concern about their people!"

"Once the Yirkin were driven out of the Five Galaxies, we were the only threat. I imagine they thought, as we do, that we'd have some space and time to rebuild and heal before we faced another threat."

A'Ran didn't like Mansr's pointed tone, the one subtly telling him he was more like Romas than he ever wanted to admit. He, too, had left his people mostly vulnerable and scattered across too many planets and moons to name.

"This ship. Whose was it?" he demanded, wracking his thoughts for an explanation as to who was bold enough to carry away two nishanis.

"There's no imagery available. Witnesses said it had no markings and it appeared to have been badly damaged."

"Damaged?"

"It barely made it off the planet."

"Then it should be easy to find!"

"I already called our command carrier," Mansr said with tried patience. "They dispatched scouting ships in every direction."

"How long ago was it spotted?"