by Athena Storm
A set of jagged nails rend a substantial wound along his ribs and Duric grits his teeth, swinging wide and gaining a bit of room for the effort. Breaking into a long arcing run, he whirls past me and slings his knife into the grass near my feet.
“Use this,” he orders as he passes. Then, with a series of spins to gain force, he crashes his club into the back of one of the beasts that’s been tracing his journey. It’s an attempted repeat of his move by the river. Sever the spine and cripple the bastard. But the blow lands foul, and while it stings his adversary, he remains intact.
From the side, an Odex broadsides Duric and sends him crashing to the dirt. His weapon is wrenched away and he scrambles away, rocking from side to side to minimize the gouges as they stab their claws at him.
A pair of the beasts are slobbering my way, so I hunker down low and sprint directly at them, whistling between them so closely that their stinking fur brushes my face. Driving at the circle formed around Duric, I build upon his instincts. Coming up behind one of the Odex, I click open the knife and slice hard and deep across the tendons in the back of its leg.
A glut of hot blood burps out over my hands and I dart out of the way as the creature buckles backwards and rolls wailing on the ground. Before I can work my blade across another victim, the back of a giant paw slams into my face and sends me thudding back. My vision blurs and all the air is knocked out of me. Turning to my side, I can make out Duric struggling to rise, but two of the brutes kick him violently down again. A few more drag their screaming companion out of the fray while a heavy foot pins me to the soil.
The weight stops just shy of shattering my ribs, and I’m as helpless as a specimen pinned to a board in a lab. It feels very much like the end of the line. Neither of us have much hope of gaining the upper hand. The last thing I’m going to hear will be the inarticulate screams of some wounded Odex, and the sound of my own bones splintering into the soil.
The searing blast of a sludge thrower rips through the air and the screaming Odex grows silent. A roar goes up from its compatriots, and I think for a moment we might be saved. Even Duric has risen on an elbow, in the midst of a momentary reprieve from being kicked.
“Silence.” The gravely shout cuts above the din and the howling Odex lapse into quiet. They clear away from Duric. The foot on my back lifts, and I curl onto my side, choking as air floods my anguished lungs.
A sickly yellow Shorcu strides into the clearing, his weapon slung carelessly over his scaly shoulders. Bare chested with a loose Coalition medallion slung around his neck. Behind him, the inert body of the wounded Odex oozes blood into the cool grass.
“I hate that noise, don’t you, Vakutan?” He stops just short of Duric. Keeping his eyes fixed on his adversary, he points in my direction.
“Bring the girl.”
A putrid smell envelops me as the beast who had pinioned me squats low and bundles me into its brawny arms, lumbers over to its commander and drops me on the ground near Duric.
He puts a hand out to touch me, and I squeeze his fingers. We’re both still alive and whole. That has to mean something.
“They’re hungry, you know,” the Shorcu rasps out over us. “They found those two you left behind, all the way back by the river, and when they saw that?” He licks his lips. “I knew it was only a matter of time.”
His leathern face is cradled in a web of scars, and the three bluish eyes gleam down on us. “What these Odex may lack in intellect, they more than make up for in determination.”
“Who are you?” Duric has blood running down from his nose, and one of his eyes is beginning to swell. His entire body seems to be a patchwork of scratches, each set sending splashes of blood across his tattered uniform.
“Commander Martek,” our captor smiles down on us, rows of jagged yellow teeth shining against the thin, black line of his lips. “I’m head of the Coalition warships under Zora since you Alliance heretics brought down Commander Chulk.” His eye twitches at the name of his fallen compatriot and his lips pull tight, erasing his gloating smile as his face goes cold. “The real question, Vakutan, is – who are you?”
Duric presses his mouth into a thin line and stares up at the lizard lording over us. The three horrible eyes flash over to me, and I mimic my lover in his silence. Looking back and forth between us, the ghastly smile returns.
“Well. We’ll just have to find out, won’t we? Stand them up!”
As he barks out the final command, the two nearest Odex haul us to our feet. Duric doesn’t resist, so I follow his lead. I’m completely out of my depth how and my only hope is to take his example and give up as little as possible. Martek is chuckling now as he paces around, rubbing his free hand across his scaly chest.
“In many ways, I’m grateful to you, Vakutan. If you were a coward and gave up your information freely, we would have killed you and launched again. It seems such a pity to waste this opportunity.” His face is now very close to Duric’s, “But I know your kind. So proud. So strong.”
Martek’s terrible eyes cut back over to me, and Duric’s follow them. “But,” the Shorcu parses out his words gleefully, “then I would lose the pleasure of interrogation.”
At the word, Duric struggles violently against the Odex holding him, thrashing in a sudden burst that sends Martek recoiling. Wrenching free from the monster restraining him, Duric lands a devastating blow right between the Odex’s eyes, sending it reeling aside. Two others rush him, and Duric takes them on, keeping low to protect his center and dealing out punishment with every strike.
“We want them alive,” Martek has a restraining hand up, warding off the rest of the herd as the two brutes going after Duric do their best to fend off his strikes.
“No,” I scream out as one of them catches his arm in a swing and pulls him off his balance. The other best makes for his legs, and Duric manages to land a couple of searing kicks, wrestling the near to the edge of the cliff behind him. It’s a brilliant strategic move, using himself as bait to hurl them over.
If he can just get one of them to fall, I think, he can take the other. Almost as if he planned it, one Odex rushes at Duric, tucking as low as it can in an effort to center itself. Duric lets out a massive kick which ought to have sent the beast screaming down into the water, except that it catches his leg.
Duric’s face washes over with fear and disbelief as the two monsters stretch him between them. In a last ditch, he kicks his free leg against the turf and wrenches his body toward the open air. His adversaries unprepared, their balance flounders and the knot of bodies tumble as one over the edge.
With the sight, the grip of my own captor weakens enough that I can wriggle out and run to the brim of the rocky cliff. I make it just in time to see the wriggling tangle of bodies bounce against the steep, mossy plain and splash into the frothy current of the river below. The water churns with their struggle, each striving for primacy – for air, until the limbs lock against each other and the whole trio disappears into the torrent.
A knot ties itself in my throat, and my knees surrender, leaving me sprawled out on the ridge, gazing down at the splashing rush below.
“Well,” Martek croaks behind me, “It’s a shame to lose our prize.” I turn to see him advancing on me with easy steps. “However,” he purrs, “I’m sure we can wrest whatever we might need from the human.”
The jagged teeth flash again against his dull yellow scales. Behind him, the brace of Odex sway with anticipation, clicking their claws against each other and glinting their red eyes at me. Cold rushes over me, and I long for the dullness that overtook my fear before. Because whatever is about to happen is bound to be very, very painful.
Twenty-Six
Duric
My back is aflame from the heavy impact against the steep, rocky slope, blunting the agony from my raked rib cage. There’s nothing I can do but tumble amid the twisted tangle of Odex limbs and bodies as we careen toward the bottom of this ravine, and the river which thunders through it.
We all hit the water, which feels much like striking on hard ground. The air explodes out of my lungs, and it takes everything I have to resist trying to suck in another gulp of oxygen. Right now, that would only fill my lungs with water.
The Odex are not an aquatic race. They cease their efforts to apprehend me and instead flail about in the water like panicking beasts. Unfortunately, their heavy kicking and floundering is almost as bad as the beat down their fellows delivered up on the cliff side.
We tumble through the water in a knot, bouncing painfully off of submerged stones and fallen trees. At one point the knot of struggling beings twists in the water and I wind up on top. My head is thrust above the surface and I desperately suck in air before I become submerged again.
Beneath the surface, it’s almost impossible to see even if I weren’t wrestling with two massive furry behemoths. The water is frothy, full of bubbles and debris, but I do manage to spot a particularly jagged rock right in our path.
I kick out against the bank, and my feet find solid purchase. Keeping my mouth tightly shut to avoid spurting out my precious air, I force the mass of Odex around in front of me so that they will take the brunt of the impact.
There’s a gurgling scream as the larger Odex strikes the rock with its back. The creature arches over, bending in an unnatural way as its jaws drop open.
One down, one to go. We bounce along the jagged shore line, struggling and biting and gouging in a primal struggle for survival.
I manage to slip around behind the Odex and wrap my arms around its neck. This puts me above the surface of the rushing river, and I gratefully suck in big, tasty lungfuls of air. I have no weapons, so I attempt to choke the life out of the monster.
“Die, damn you,” I sputter as we churn along with the current. Odex are stubborn, almost as hard to kill as a Vakutan. Sometimes you can hack their limbs off and they’ll keep trying to throttle you with the bloody stumps. I’ve seen it happen.
But I might just succeed in vanquishing my foe, if I have a little more time. The sight ahead of us makes me believe that time has run out, however. Run out for the both of us.
Ahead, the river suddenly seems to end, and all I see is a patch of navy blue sky. A waterfall. No way to know how high it is, or what waits below. Will there be a deep pool, like the one near the cave I shared with Daphne? Or will there be naught but sharp rocks awaiting us with their hungry edges?
At the very edge of the waterfall I get sucked under the waves again, so I don’t actually see anything when we go over. For a moment we’re falling, and we separate in mid air. Then we crash down hard, hitting the water feeling akin to hitting steel.
I am fortunate, and the water is quite deep. The pounding surf drives us further under the waterfall, and I know I am not strong enough to resist its pull. Instead, I dive downward until the oppressive weight diminishes and I can angle up for the surface.
My head breaks the waves, and I sputter and choke as I try to get my bearings. I don’t see the Odex anywhere. Possibly, he is still trying to fight the force of the waterfall, a fight he will not win.
Glancing about, I discover that I am still trapped in the river, though it has grown much calmer. The steep, rocky banks sweeping high up on either side of me seem impossible to climb, even if I weren’t fatigued. There’s nothing I can do but float along with the current until I come to a place where I can escape.
It doesn’t come quickly. For a time I bob in the river, growing more and more anxious as the distance grows between myself and Daphne. I can’t bear to think of her in the clutches of that yellow monster Martek. A Shorcu interrogation is a horrific experience. I know firsthand.
I have to get back, and save her. Somehow. How horrid would it be if our last words to each other were in the form of an argument? Why do I allow myself to grow so angry with her? It’s like I lose all my sense of reason when I’m in Daphne’s presence.
Like as not, I have feelings for her. My heart knows what it wants, and my brain keeps getting in the way.
This sensation in my chest, this ache, I have never felt its like. I’ve missed others before, and felt loneliness but this is different. I feel as if I need Daphne, like the trees need rain. If she is killed, if I lose her, I feel the light will go out of my universe forever.
At last, I float into a section of river where the cliffs give way to a black sand beach. My limbs feel like they are lined with lead as I splash up out of the water and collapse on the bank. I want to head back for Daphne immediately, but my body is spent, and I sink into unconsciousness.
Instead of dreamless oblivion, I am tormented by nightmares of yellow scaled demons flaying the delicate skin off of Daphne layer by gory layer. Trapped in a box of sand, I can do nothing to save her. I can only watch while her life is stripped away in the most painful way imaginable.
Eventually, I manage to rouse myself from my agonized slumber. My nose aches terribly, and I think I may have struck it on a river rock, but then I realize that one of the tendril creatures is gnawing on my nostrils.
“Feasting time is over, you little shit.”
This time I do crush the little bastard in my hand before tossing it in the river. Despite being damp from my unplanned swim meet, my mouth is dry as a desert. I lap up what seems like a gallon of water from the river until I am sated.
Daphne. I must save her from that damned Shorcu. I have no time to dally.
With a groan, I realize I’m many miles from where I went into the river. Fortunately, the mountain peak, while still out of reach, provides a landmark to orient myself to the terrain. I take off at a dead run toward the place we were ambushed, keeping the river on my flank. Over time I have to abandon haste in favor of a more measured pace.
My sides ache, my feet are blistered, but still I run on. How could I let myself get involved with a human woman, anyway? What was I thinking?
That’s just it, I wasn’t. Not with my head, at any rate.
But much as I try to mentally berate myself for falling head over heels for Daphne, I can’t. A few days ago I thought I understood the galaxy, and my place in it. Now, I fell as if everything has been called into question. The only thing I know is that I won’t be happy unless I can continue to be with Daphne, continue to taste her sweet lips and brush her silken hair through my fingers.
What is this? Love? I scoff at myself as my long stride eats up the miles. If this is love, who needs it? It robs me of reason and logic and spurs me to run toward almost certain death, with gusto at that.
But would I trade the last few days I’ve spent with Daphne for a hundred more alone? Not a chance.
I come upon the ambush sight, and kneel in the trampled grass looking for signs that Daphne remains alive. I don’t find any of her blood, and I make out one of her footprints in the muddy soil near the cliff I’ve tumbled over. Of course, she’s alive. Martek can’t interrogate her if she’s dead.
Clinging to that somewhat morbid hope, I take off after the Odex’s trail. Along the way I scoop up my khaffi stick, and am pleased to find it still functions. That’s good, because I’m going to need it.
I’m going to need it to kill a bunch of Odex and one slimy little scaled Shorcu.
I’m coming Daphne. I’m coming.
Please hold on a little longer.
Twenty-Seven
Daphne
Martek leers at me, swiping his gloating tongue across his oily lips. Odex continue their swaying, inching forward as if in a trance. Their black nails have left the grotesque applause of clicking and begin to run along each other in slow, rhythmic scrapes. I can’t help imagining the old trope of a chef honing his blade on a rasp. The malicious intent seems the same.
They are preparing to do some carving.
While half my spirit longs to fight back, to strike out at as many of these monsters as I can – taking eyes and pounding throats, my will has flown out of my joints. Wheeling away from the putrid Shorcu and his hoard of reeking muscle, my eyes lock on the churning waters
below.
No trace of Duric nor his assassins breaks the foaming surface. He’s been swept away to the unknown valley, from whence no traveler returns. Dead. Daphne, he’s dead.
Acid rises from my empty stomach, burning my throat as I gag and heave at the ground, racking my body with contractions of pure remorse. Nothing issues from my throat but cracks and gasps – you can’t throw up misery. It clings to your bones, coating your insides with vacancy and regret.
Fuck.
I loved him. Under all the pride and the resistance and the rivalry, there’s no shred of a doubt that I had given my soul to that stubborn, impossible Vakutan. My body followed easily, led by something more than mere gratitude. And I know, I know he loved me, too. Why else would he have cradled his body around mine while his crew mates splattered across his cratering ship?
What else would have induced him to venture his own life again and again for mine? And why would I push past the limits of my reason to meet him at every turn? Knowing that after every fight, our reward would be dizzying physical exultation. We both knew.
Well, to hell with this.
When my gaze cuts back to Commander Martek, his three eyes are sharp in their wisdom. He knows. I’m capable of anything.
“Take her!”
Before his putrid breath has broken past his rotten lips, I’ve kicked my legs against the turf and begun tumbling down the sheer rock face. A cry bawls out from atop the ridge and within moments, Odex are skittering down after me. Hurling themselves, heedless of injury, upon the terror of command.
In an instant, my bruising journey splashes to a halt and my breath is subsumed in a torrent of bilious water. Immediately, a burbling crash beside me sends me surging to the surface. Air and noise flood in upon the silence and two more horrid beasts plummet into the water near me.
