That mik'trai, Nakor Surik, knew nothing about the Inari and didn't care that they could die, taking their secrets with them. But Kalas could do nothing but hold his tongue while Surik—Kan Rikku Nakor Surik, a title undeserved—explained his half-witted idea about killing one of the Inari, because none of them were worth keeping alive, yet they needed one of them.
This after the trouble Kalas had gone through to find and capture them wore his patience thin. The young commander understood nothing, but Kalas hadn't told him about the anomaly that formed while the two were flying, nor had the others who supported Kalas.
He'd sent one of his supporters to oversee the Inari couple's request for use of the restroom but none of the guards had reported to him since. They should be back to translating the monolith.
He marched through the corridors to reach the control room overlooking the tall chamber. If they made a discovery, he would be the first to know and would use it to his advantage.
The moment he stepped around the next corner, he stopped.
Lying in the floor was a cement-gray body with a green hole in the middle and a weapon at its side. Who was it and who had shot them?
Kalas pulled his weapon and approached the body, wary of a waiting attacker. The hall was clear for the moment, but he wouldn't take any chances. If Surik suspected anyone of treason, he might have ordered a purge. The Nakor held any outside their clan in suspicion, even while trusting them with service.
But Surik wouldn't leave a body in the middle of the corridor.
Who could have seen the guard, still in camouflage, to shoot so accurately but one of their own?
There must have been another traitor. He could use this to his advantage.
A voice spoke over the mechanical bud in his ear. {"The Inari have escaped! They are armed."}
By Ch'tor's blaze! {"Who gave them weapons?"} He'd kill the fool himself, if they weren't dead already. Kalas passed his finger over the trigger of his weapon and hurried around the next corridor.
{"No one, Rikku. Something came out of their hands."}
{"How?"} Was that the purpose of the marks on their hands?
{"I don't know. They took out the guards in a second but let me go."}
{"Let you go?"}
The young warrior hesitated. {"They…threatened me to die or run."}
Obviously he had chosen to spare his life rather than try to recapture the two. Surik could deal with him later.
{"Where are they headed?"}
{"I don't know."}
No, probably not; not if he ran away.
{"Find them and bring them back alive!"} The Inari were no use to them dead.
Surik would be raising spikes when he heard. Luckily, Kalas didn't have to tell him to his face. The Nakor Kan Rikku would likely kill the messenger.
Rather, Kalas intended to recapture the Inari and prove his value to those still unsure about joining him. One of the lesser of the Nakor clan could pass on the news to Surik.
{"Yes, Rikku Ronur Kalas."}
A Cold Dark Night
Something flashed past Raea's right shoulder. That was too close!
"Elis."
Next to her, he whirled and fired back. "Keep going."
Raea ducked through the open door into a dark vertical tunnel. Inside, she grabbed the rungs along the wall and climbed up a few steps. When Elis didn't follow, she halted and glanced down. "Come on!"
He backed into the tunnel with her and closed the hatch, shutting them in pitch black. Following the squeak of him turning the metal wheel a few times, the light of his Starburst marks brightly lit the dark vertical tunnel and metal sizzled in the glare. She closed her eyes until it stopped.
A bump on her ankle startled her into nearly falling.
"Climb," he said.
Right. Their only way out now was up. Man, she hoped they weren't trapped. There had better be an exit at the end or they were so screwed a nail would be jealous.
A touch of resonance gave her some light from her hands to see her way up the metal rungs along the wall of the tunnel.
The clang of metal echoed through the tunnel from their steps, while Elis's hands brushed her lower legs occasionally. One slip and she'd fall a long ways, taking him with her; she couldn't spread her wings in that narrow space.
Look up, she told herself to keep from thinking of the danger below. A lot of muted clanging rang from below, but no Risaal followed. "What'd you do?" Her whisper echoed back in stereo surround.
"Welded the wheel so they can't open the door."
That explained the bright glow of his marks moments ago. "Good thinking."
In the faint glow of her hands, she made out the shadows of a wheel above. A door! They would be out in the open soon. Then they could fly away from all this.
They'd have to inform someone of the Risaal, and the stolen artifact would be enough to put the doppelgangers in prison, so they couldn't bother her and Elis again. She should have done that with Pallin when she had the chance; but in hindsight, the Shirukan probably would have sent others sooner. As it was, she had been lucky the rebels of Naviketan rescued her when the Shirukan had come again.
Who could she trust with any power to stop the Risaal? Everyone would think she'd been watching too much TV.
She reached the door and, with one arm wrapped around the top rung, stretched her other arm to the wheel to turn it. Warm from the resonance, she hurried to open the hatch to what she hoped would be fresh air and freedom.
After a couple rounds, the wheel stopped. She pressed her hand to the door, ready to shove it open.
"Wait." Elis's hushed voice froze her motion. Now what? "Listen. Do you hear anything?"
Raea listened for a second, but heard only her heart pounding in her ears. "No."
"Be careful and open it slowly."
Raea pushed up. The door was heavier than she expected, but it moved. She peeked out of a sliver of opening to a fading orange at the western horizon and trees with what appeared to be a chain-link fence nearby.
"It looks safe." Here went everything.
She pushed the hatch open and climbed out with Elis close behind and halted in peeking over the door.
"What is it?" he whispered.
"A building." A single-level structure stood not fifty feet away, big enough for several offices. A dark van parked in front of it.
"Do you see anyone?"
In the silence, she swallowed and searched the shadows—nothing. "Looks clear," she whispered and stepped out.
Behind her, he climbed out and shut the hatch.
Fresh air filled her lungs and inspired a sense of freedom sorely missed. A warm touch around her waist sent a shiver through her. It seemed a lifetime but had only been a day, at least that she could tell.
"Time to fly." Elis's low voice sent a tingle of anticipation through her as he backed away.
The resonance warmed through her at a thought. For a fleeting moment, she recalled her first lesson and how hard it had been to find the resonance. Practice had given her a memory of the pitch of the crystal within her body and how to make it resonate to unleash its power.
She directed the warmth to her back and focused on growing out the wings. Raea clenched her teeth on the pain as bones and muscles grew rapidly with feathers. After all the transformations, the pain never lessened.
After making it look easy, Elis stood before her, a dark figure with black wings framed by the setting sun. The sight of him with his wings, a true Inari, made her heart flutter with pride. He was all hers. The girls at school would be so jealous if they knew her boyfriend was the Dark Angel everyone talked about. They had started gossiping about it recently, because they were jealous of the second angel spotted in the sky with him. Even her friend Jess had sighed at the idea of an angel as a boyfriend and said he was so hot not even Pallin could compare. If they only knew.
But Elis didn't let it go to his head. He'd found the discussions amusing, nothing more. Always so modest, at least on the out
side. She loved that about him.
"Ready?"
The sound of grass swishing in a quick pattern shattered the peace. Both of them whirled to face the building. A shadowy figure lifted its arms.
"Run!"
No telling her twice. They didn't exactly have room to spread their wings, and they'd be easy targets with their wings open right there.
Raea raced through the trees, where the chain-link fence posed a new obstacle.
"Climb!" Elis called
She started up, but the small diamond links were a tad small for her toes. Damn. At that rate, the Risaal would catch them in no time.
Wait. Where was Elis?
She paused and swore her heart stopped.
Elis released the Starfire energy from his hands at nearly the same time the Risaal's weapon flared in the dark.
"Elis!"
He hit the fence next to her and tumbled forward. The Risaal flew back and lay still in the grass.
Oh, God, no! Please no. Raea jumped down and landed on the ground next to him, tears blurring her vision to cool the burning of her heart.
"Elis." Careful of his wings, she rolled him to his back. At the site of white bones surrounded by burned flesh, she gasped.
"Oh, God. Elis. Elis." No no no no no no. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't lose him, not now. Her chest ached, the prospects of losing him ripping a hole through her emotions, leaving her empty and alone.
"Elis." She sniffed and kissed his cheek, but he lay still and unresponsive. Sobs clogged her throat, but she had one more option. Maybe he was only unconscious. He had to be.
She moved his hands to his chest above the wound and set her hands on his. In a thought, she found the resonance. Instead of burning, it tickled through her arms and flowed out in a continuous stream of healing for what seemed an eternity. Healing him had to work. It just had to.
Raea.
She blinked and refocused. He had to live.
Listen…
A jolt of power shocked her through her hands and she released the resonance to a cooling of her body and looked down. She'd healed before but had never experienced anything like that. Hopefully it worked.
"Elis, wake up. You…you can't…" The dreaded word hung on her tongue like poison. "Wake up, Elis." She sniffed and felt on his neck for a pulse, at least where she thought it should be.
Nothing. Her heart gave a heavy thud. Raea shifted her fingers. It had to be there. Oh, God. Where was his pulse?
Still nothing.
"No." She sniffed and swiped her hair from her face. "You can't die!"
No response. Elis laid still.
A distant shout broke through the encroaching night.
"Elis, wake up. Please," she choked. "We have to go."
Another shout sounded closer. She'd have to fly.
But she couldn't leave him.
He was dead.
No! She refused to believe it. He needed her to try harder.
[Fly! Fly now!] The voice came from within.
Raea leaned down to kiss the cool cheek, feeling like her heart stayed with him.
[Hurry!]
Reluctant to leave but realizing she couldn't let his sacrifice mean nothing, she climbed the fence, spread her wings, and flapped into the night.
The cold night air carried her high over the scene and chilled her wet cheeks.
Two shadows stopped at Elis's body, but no one fired on her.
Tears blurred the rest of the landscape, but she didn't care. She flew just to fly, her tears cold on her face.
"Why?" She looked up at the sprinkle of stars to the east. "It's not fair!" If there was a God, why did he make her suffer? Why did he take Elis away?
Only silence answered.
There wasn't any God. Debbie was wrong. Josh and Evelyn were wrong. Everyone was wrong. There was just the unfairness of life and death.
And the Risaal and the Shirukan, and everyone else deserved far worse. They had taken him from her, the one person who truly understood her. After all he had done, he deserved life, not this unfair ending. Elis…
After some time flying into the sunset, she recognized an oasis of lights spread upon the open prairie. One building stood out above the others near the center, the lights around it illuminating its lonely height in a magnificent glow. The State Capitol building in Bismarck. McClarron was about fifty miles northeast, which meant she would be home in an hour.
How long had she been flying? Time had seemed to stand still on eternity since she took off. It didn't matter without him.
She angled her wings and shifted them minutely to adjust for shifts in air currents, rising with a cushion of warm air from the south. Summer came, the longest, loneliest she would ever know. She didn't want to know it without him.
Tears burned anew in her eyes and the landscape blurred. Flying came on instinct to carry her away from the glow of the city to the peace of the countryside. Practice with Elis had made flying a literal breeze.
All she'd ever wanted was a normal life, but in the last two months, she'd had only short periods of that. Elis had been the greatest part of that, and she wouldn't trade it for anything.
Now he was gone. Dear God. He was gone, taking that gentle smile and the caring nature of a real angel. She should have been nicer to him from the beginning. She had been mean like the others, and he didn't deserve it. He was better than anyone and better than anyone knew. If only she could go back and change it all. Had she known how wonderful two months could be with him, she would have taken the last two years to enjoy being together, instead of wasting it.
The lights of a town glowed on the horizon, a cruel reminder of the loneliness of home.
Home.
All she wanted now was to curl up in her bed and forget everything.
In the distance rose the glowing light of the tall sign of the Prairie Rose Inn with its pink blossom. Her stomach churned; Elis had saved her from Pallin at that hotel. If not for Elis, she would be dead.
The sign distorted in a blur of fresh tears with the rest of the town. Despite the haze of moisture, she made out the breadth of the school buildings near the sports field. The alternating street lamps along the street illuminated spots in the quiet night and insulted her. It was as if the sleepy town didn't care that their Dark Angel was gone.
They should care. They would be sorry when he wasn't there for them.
The sobs choked her on the thought. Elis had given the town hope.
Through the blur of moisture in her eyes, she recognized the yellow and blue houses at the edge of town.
The field where she and Elis usually landed was across the street, now lined with perfect rows of crop sprouts. They had avoided damaging the crops by taking off elsewhere.
She didn't want to walk a long ways home and didn't care what anyone thought. So what if they saw what she was? Her life was ruined.
Raea flapped quickly to slow her descent into Evelyn's backyard. Her feet touched down and she folded her wings to her back. Amid the pain inside, she found the back door and entered, letting it slam closed behind her.
The kitchen was dark, but the light from the entry foyer slanted across the dining room and through the doorway of the kitchen to faintly outline the refrigerator and counters.
She could have navigated the kitchen blind for as much time as she had spent there with Elis and Evelyn.
"Hello?" The voice came from somewhere ahead, probably the recliner next to the window of the front sitting room, the old woman's favorite place. "Is someone here?"
The thump of the recliner foot rest going down confirmed Evelyn's location.
Sniffling and choking on her tears, Raea made her way around the dining table as Evelyn stepped into the foyer, her face dropping into a frown and her eyes looking past Raea.
"Elis?"
"No." Raea could only wish. She recovered her voice to say, "He's gone." Hearing it stabbed her with fresh pain, the sobs shaking through her.
"Raea." The steadine
ss of Evelyn's embrace did nothing to ease the pain crushing the life from her. "We were so worried."
"They k—killed him. God, they killed him."
Evelyn stepped back, her hands tracing along Raea's face. Gray eyes studied her and glazed over. She turned up Raea's hands.
Red smeared across her fingers and palms. She wore Elis's blood on her hands. Oh, God. SHE WORE ELIS'S BLOOD ON HER HANDS!
"No." Raea turned them over, reached up to wipe her eyes, and stopped. How bad was her face? She'd been wiping her eyes all night.
Evelyn's hands trembled over her mouth, her eyes welling with tears.
Unable to take someone else's tears and the thought of his blood on her hands, Raea rushed up the stairs to the bathroom. She had to wash it off.
The loose step creaked, but she didn't care. At the top, she knobbed her hip on the banister corner in her hurry around it. Damn, it hurt, but it was nothing compared to her heart. She hurried to the bathroom door and flicked on the light.
At the doorway, she stared at the disheveled reflection of a young woman with brown wings. Streaks of red smeared her face around tear-swollen eyes with brown smudges mixed in like some demonic Halloween mask.
Raea turned the hot water on. Although it started cold, she washed her hands and scrubbed her face before it came in hot.
Through the steam, she made out a clean but haggard face with red, swollen eyes tired from grief and fatigue.
Her clean hands with the dull aquamarine marks turned the water off, and she stepped back. Brown wings lifted in the reflection. A weeping angel stood alone with blood staining the sleeves of her jacket.
On the countertop next to the cracked porcelain of the sink basin laid a black hairbrush.
Elis… She picked it up and caught a small laugh through the tears. Black hairs clumped on the insides of the plastic tines. Didn't he know he was supposed to clean his brush? She should have told him sooner. Now she was glad she hadn't. There was one reminder of who he was.
The rest was in his room.
Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) Page 9
