The Thirteenth Man (35 page)

Authors: J.L. Doty

BOOK: The Thirteenth Man

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“Wait,” Del shouted. “Wait.”

Dieter spun to face her, holding the knife at Charlie's throat.

She pulled herself slowly to her feet, a plast knife held in her left hand. Her right arm had clearly been injured, because she clutched her right hand painfully to her side in a fold of her dress. Standing there with her dress torn, one breast exposed, the side of her face swollen, covered in bits of Thraka's brains and blood and bone, she was the oddest, most beautiful creature Charlie had ever seen. “Don't kill him,” she said to Dieter. She said it in a seductive, almost alluring way. “Don't hurt him and I'll come with you willingly.”

Dieter hooted and laughed. “Why do I care if you come with me willingly, since you're going to come with me no matter what?”

She smiled, cocked her head coquettishly and limped toward them. “Because if I'm not willing, then the only way you'll ever have me is rape. Over and over again, just rape, just the same old thing day after day, and don't you think that'll get a little boring?”

She stopped two paces away. With the knife in her left hand, she reached up and cut her own breast, not a deep cut but enough to draw a little blood. She tossed the knife aside, reached up again and smeared her own blood on the tips of her fingers. Then, oh so seductively, she rubbed the blood on the tip of her tongue, traced it across her lips. “But with my .Â .Â . cooperation,” she said in a low and sultry voice, “I could get very inventive, and you might find pleasures you've never imagined.”

Still clutching her right hand in the fold of her dress, she smeared more of her blood on the fingers of her left hand, held it out to Dieter and walked slowly toward him. Dieter dropped Charlie to the deck, completely entranced as she touched the blood delicately to his lips. His tongue darted out, tasted the blood, and he almost swooned.

Charlie lay on the deck, unable to believe his eyes. But he saw it a second before he heard it, the hilt of Thraka's power knife in her right hand hidden in the folds of her dress. They all heard the hum as she threw the switch. Dieter's eyes widened for just an instant, and Del's face turned into a mask of fury and hatred. She grunted angrily as she jammed the blade up into his chest. She punched it up directly into his spine, then stepped back and slashed upward and out to the side. The blade half severed Dieter's torso and exited just under his left armpit. The momentum of Del's slice carried her hand and the blade right through his arm just below the shoulder, severing it completely.

Dieter's severed arm thudded to the deck. He stood there for a moment, staring at it stupidly, blood flowing in a massive cascade down his torso. And then he crumpled down into a pathetic heap on the deck. He groaned, gurgled, blood forming a giant pool on the deck around him. He tried to say something, only managed to produce a choking, wet murmur and a froth of blood on his lips. Del ignored him, kicked his knife away, touched the switch on the power knife and it went silent. She tossed it aside.

She stepped over to Charlie, knelt down beside him. “How bad are you hurt?” she asked, as Dieter continued to gurgle and drown in his own blood.

“Not good,” he said.

“Can you wait a minute or two before we get help?”

“Why?”

She nodded toward Dieter, who still struggled and gurgled. “If he gets help immediately, they're good enough, they just might revive him, and I'm not going to let that happen. Let's give him a few minutes to bleed out, make sure he's really dead.”

Charlie looked in her eyes. “Remind me .Â .Â . never to .Â .Â . piss you off.”

She grinned, and her eyebrows lifted excitedly. “We could spend the time making out, necking and petting like school kids.” She suddenly remembered her exposed breast, blushed, and lifted the torn fabric of her dress to cover it. She leaned down farther and kissed him, a gentle kiss that promised more.

When their lips parted she said, “You came and got me. That was stupid. I'm glad you did, but the Realm doesn't need me. Not as much as it needs you.”

“But I need you.”

She smiled. “I know. I like it that you need me. And I need you.”

She kissed him again. Dieter had been silent for some time. She glanced his way and said, “That should do it.”

Charlie couldn't get to his feet on his own. She helped him up and he had to lean heavily on her. “Come on, spacer,” she said. “Let's go have that dance.”

EPILOGUE

THE SPACER GETS HIS DANCE

E
nrik Adsin was never heard from again. It was believed that President Goutain had him done away with, though nothing could ever be proven.

Goutain's military forces were badly mauled at the battle of Andyne-ÂBorregga. Of the fifty odd warships he brought to the battle, only eight made it back to the Republic of Syndon, and those all had heavy damage. He made a number of speeches about the injustice of the Realm's unprovoked attack on the Republic. But he'd lost considerable support among his Syndonese sycophants for his failed attempt to turn the Realm into a puppet kingdom. The Syndonese insurrection gained further momentum, and one year after the battle the military overthrew him in a bloody coup and he was never seen again. His successor, President TantinâÂformerly General TantinâÂgave a number of long-Âwinded speeches touting peaceful cooperation with Syndon's neighboring states, though since it was Tantin, his words were viewed with considerable skepticism.

Gaida and Theode were confined to a small de Maris estate and lived out their days in comfortable, though isolated, imprisonment. But with all her dreams dashed, Gaida finally went mad, murdered Theode, then took her own life.

The nine dukes reinstated Lord Arthur as His Grace, Duke de Maris, and for centuries the de Maris ducal seat remained one of the strongest in the Realm.

With the demise of both Nadama and Dieter, the nine dukes found a distant cousin to inherit the de Satarna ducal seat, though he was far from strong. And after the disastrous battle of Andyne-ÂBorregga, which severely weakened House de Satarna, it never regained its status as the preeminent duchy in the Realm.

Old Rierma married Lady Sally, made an honest woman out of herâÂor perhaps she made a dishonest man out of him, though he'd openly admit he had always been quite dishonest. It “turned out” she wasn't his niece after all, but a highborn and elegant noblewoman of unquestionable repute, concerning which he was able to produce considerable documentation. In any case, he married her and made her the Duchess de Neptair. Rumors surfaced that he and she frequented a rather disreputable trampsie saloon, and had been seen dancing an undignified, and quite lively, jig. Interestingly enough, she seemed quite happy, and in his later years he always had a smile on his face. After his death at a ripe old age, Duchess Sally proved to be one of the most formidable women in the empire.

To Janice's surprise, Charlie never did “do duke shit”: start wars and kill Âpeople, though she wouldn't have held it against him if he had, because that's what dukes did. She and Becky and Trina eventually found husbands and got out of the business, though they took great pride that their daughters were chosen to follow in their footsteps, and the young girls benefitted considerably from their mothers' years of experience.

Because of Charlie's near-Âdestitute status, the other nine dukes were quite comfortable with his betrothal to Delilah, and they were married in a magnificent ceremony to much celebration throughout the Realm. When the Ten forced Lucius, because of his follies, to abdicate, Charlie and Delilah were crowned king and queen. It surprised no one that Charlie turned out to be a strong king, though it did surprise some that Delilah was an equally strong queen.

Within a few years, because of the instabilities in Syndon, and as it leaked out that Charlie was a far stronger and more powerful king than anticipated, several of the independent states petitioned King Charles for protectorate status. And from that day the Lunan Empire was born, with Charlie and Delilah the first emperor and empress.

Delilah, mercifully, did not have the willpower to wait for the nuptials before fulfilling her civic duty, much to Charlie's delightâÂand hers too, for that matter. In fact, performing her civic duty was a responsibility she and Charlie took quite seriously throughout their lives.

Del and her spacer finally did have that dance, at Momma Toofat's, and it was no sedate waltz.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I
'd like to thank Betsy Mitchell for whipping both me and my book into shape; Karen for both supporting my dream and being my most valuable critic; and David Pomerico, and the whole team at HarperÂCollins, for believing in an indie, and turning the book into something to be proud of.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trained as a scientist with a PhD in Electrical Engineering (specializing in laser physics),
J.L. DOTY
has been writing science fiction and fantasy for over thirty years. He has nine published novels, including the three series:
The Treasons Cycle
,
The Gods Within
, and
The Dead Among Us
. Born in Seattle, he now lives in Arizona with his wife and three cats. He writes full-Âtime now and continues to focus on speculative fiction, but never with lasers as a weapon, since most writers invariably get that wrong.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.

Also by J.L. Doty

THE TREASONS CYCLE
(hard science fiction)

Of Treasons Born
(prequel to
A Choice of Treasons
)

A Choice of Treasons

THE GODS WITHIN
(YA epic fantasy)

Child of the Sword
, Book 1

The Steel Master of Indwallin
, Book 2

The Heart of the Sands
, Book 3

The Name of the Sword
, Book 4

THE DEAD AMONG US
(contemporary urban fantasy)

When Dead Ain't Dead Enough
, Book 1

Still Not Dead Enough
, Book 2

Never Dead Enough
, Book 3

Note: sample chapters for all of these books are available on the author's web site at
www.jldoty.com
.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

THE THIRTEENTH MAN
. Copyright Â© 2016 by J.L. Doty. All rights reserved under International and Pan-ÂAmerican Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-Âbook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-Âengineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperÂCollins e-Âbooks. For information, address HarperÂCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

EPub Edition AUGUST 2016 ISBN: 9780062562081

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062562104

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