Valkyrie Hunter

Ella gave Miranda a sour look. “Why can’t you do it. I do remember you telling Gwen about it?”

Miranda gave a sigh. “Do you want me to tell Gwen how I got suckered into this. All because I fell for a honey trap?”

“Honey trap?” I hadn’t heard that expression before. I had to admit at times I had felt a bit superior when saying things Jervic and the others hadn’t understood. Now I was getting a taste of my own medicine and it sure tasted bitter.

“In the old Soviet Union it was a way of getting businessmen to divulge secrets. They were lured into compromising situations with the help of pretty girl. The women little more than prostitutes for the state.” Miranda frowned at that. “Or in my case a handsome man.”

“They blackmailed you?” I was shocked.

Miranda shrugged. “Not as such. We didn’t know how compatible we were with the Valkyrie. You can blame Captain Parsons for that he called them that and name stuck.”

I understood the second part of her words easily. I was still puzzling over the first part. “Ok I get the name change but what you said about compatibility and why stay?”

“Because I didn’t want my child growing up aboard the ‘Marco’. I didn’t realise until too late I was pregnant, as did a few of the crew. I think the Elders knew that and want to see what happened.”

“Oh?” I had no words to express how I felt about that.

“Remember we had spent five years travelling in space with only brief visits to T’Arni inhabited planets. We had few facilities for children and literally nothing for dealing with new-borns.”

“But why stay afterwards?” I asked her.

It was Ella that answered. “Because she thought she was being clever and tricked herself into becoming Clan Mother of a fledgling clan.”

“Well yes,” Miranda said hastily. “I’m sure Gwen is tired.”

I was tired but by the way Miranda was brushing it aside there was a story here. I guess there were things she hadn’t wanted to tell me. She had been so fired up to get Ella to do it that, she hadn’t realised Ella had known she hadn’t wanted the full story. “What do you mean by that?”

“Did you not tell me to tell Gwen about our clan?”

“I was hoping you’d give her the honeyed version. The one we teach the young ones?”

“Oh that version,” Ella said innocently with an evil smirk. “I think Gwen wants the truth.” She turned to me. What Triple ‘M’ doesn’t want you to hear is how she was stymied by her own cleverness.”

“Interesting,” I said giving Ella a wink.

She laughed.

“Not you to Gwen?” Miranda groaned then sighed theatrically. “Ok you win Cinders.”

Ella smiled at her. “See it’s not that hard.”

Miranda focused her attention on me. “What Cinders said was true. I got hoisted on my own petard so to speak.”

Again Miranda said something I didn’t know. I’d look it up later. I kept quiet as she continued.

“When Jazzi was born the Elders kept delaying my departure.”

“Jazzi?”

“My eldest Jasmine. Anyway I finally lost my patience and told them that if they wanted me to stay I wanted my own clan. Note I said my own clan and not be integrated into one of the other clans. Like some of the crew were, those that decided to stay.” Miranda frowned uncomfortably. “They called me on my bluff and gave me my own clan.”

“It can’t have been that easy,” I told her. I reflected on my difficulties of getting off Alfheimir so I could pursue Vanessa. An objective I failed to obtain. Then that had been the fault of the Black Stripes rather than anything I had done. When I thought about it. Yes I failed to kill Vanessa in the ruins, that was down to me. I had her in my sights if I had pulled the trigger them none of this would have mattered. I wasn’t a cold bloodied killer. I just couldn’t do that it wasn’t me.

“It wasn’t.” Ella answered for Miranda.

“Don’t tell Gwen that?” Miranda’s face went red.

“They proposed a combat test,” Ella told me.

“Which was unfair!” Miranda protested.

I remembered my ‘Test’ that had been unfair pitting me against a mountain of a woman. Somehow I don’t know how I’d passed their test. Only for months later to have them wanting me back. I should have known there was a catch when they released me to hunt Vanessa. Just as they had known I couldn’t have laid my hands on her. Neither Miri or Al would have been that much of a help either since they were both Imperials like me.

“Unfair or not you should have not cheated!” Ella warned her.

I suspect from the way Ella had said it, it had been something they constantly had words about.

“I didn’t cheat,” Miranda protested. “I studied the rules very carefully before hand.”

“Cheated?” I couldn’t see how you could cheat they stripped you naked.

“She brought a pair of brass knuckles to her test,” Ella stated.

“How?” I had to ask. A thought crossed my mind I shuddered at it there wasn’t many hiding places. I really didn’t want to know the details it seemed so smutty. “Ugh!”

“This was before the Elders brought in the strip to your skin rule,” Ella pointed out.

I suddenly saw where this was going. Thirika had told me about concealed weapons in tests hence striping the combatants naked. I would have never have thought Miranda was the cause of that. I pointed at Miranda. “It was because of you. I had to strip naked in front of all those Elders!”

Miranda blushed crimson. “Ok, ok I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t going to lose!”

“She concealed them in her panties,” Ella said.

I shuddered again at the thought. “Please don’t go there.”

“Of course she won her bout but the Elders declared it null and void.” Ella glanced at Miranda a hint of pride in her voice. I wasn’t sure if was because she passed her test or the Elders ruling.

“And argued my case successfully,” Miranda said with a smirk.

I began to see what I thought was bickering was something more light hearted.

“Yes, so successfully that you ended up as our Clan Mother.”

“Well I didn’t do too badly,” Miranda said.

I noted the catch in her voice. I saw Ella look at her quickly as sorrow flashed across her face.

“You managed to get a lot of exiles to follow you, no mean feat by any stretch of the imagination,” Ella consoled her.

I understood that from both Solstrid and Ljufu two exiles wanting to be part of a clan. I had seen their desperation and sympathised with their plight. It was why Ljufu was so keen to name me clan sister. Despite her love for Ana she was still Valkyrie to the core. I made her feel part of a clan even if she was in exile. It partly explained Solstrid’s reaction to me and why she called me Little Sis. “Would you have taken in Solstrid and Ljufu two exiles that are and was proud to call my friends?”

“Yes but we did interview and conducted background checks some were exiled for a reason. Then we integrated them into our clan the birth rates did the rest.”

I noted Miranda’s voice go bleak. I sensed there was something behind her statement, something that made her uncomfortable.

I had to ask. “Would you have taken them in now?”

“No!”

Miranda curt answer made me wince. “Why?”

“Because we have no need to take in anymore exiles. We are now big enough to stand on our own.”

I sensed a lie in that.

Ella spoke for Miranda. “Understand, we may be small by other clans standards everyone one of us carries Martin blood. Everyone that joined had their DNA altered to make them Martin.”

“Which I wasn’t happy about,” Miranda said sourly. “And I’m still not happy about the way it was done.”

“That’s what I don’t get this obsession with bloodlines,” I blurted out and quickly closed my mouth.

“Join the club,” Miranda said bitterly. “Had I known what they were going to do to me I would taken Jazzi and run for the hills.”

Just as I was about to ask her what the Elders had done Ella’s comms bleeped. With everything that was happening I hadn’t even thought of getting a comms signal out and calling for help.

“Problems Cinders?” Miranda asked.

“Yes,” I saw her glance at me. “The proximity sensors have picked up unwelcome guests. It explained how she had found me so quickly before I froze to death.