"Enough!" Nakor Surik's voice rang out.
* * *
Oh. My. God. It couldn't be. This had to be a trick.
No. No trick. She'd know those black wings and that gentle face anywhere, even through the tears blurring her vision. It was him. He was…alive!
How?
Despite the new ache in her right leg, Raea knelt next to Elis, trembling to embrace him, even as he leaned over hands and knees. "You're alive." Her voice came in a whisper, choked by the emotions clogging her throat.
"Oh, God. You're alive." And he felt good in her arms, the black feathers of his wings tickling her wet cheek where she laid her head on his back. Grief and disbelief tangled in her heart with the reality of his warm body and the musky smell she remembered.
This was real, not a vision or memory.
"You have caused me a great hardship, Inari. For that, you will die…and stay dead." Nakor Surik marched forward, his weapon held ready.
One of the other Risaal stepped towards him, his weapon pointed at Nakor Surik. "Not yet."
Nakor Surik's skin along his neck broke apart briefly and reformed. "Rikku Ronur Kalas."
"Get up," Elis whispered.
Reluctantly, Raea released him to let him sit up. He winced and she saw it—the small gash along his right leg. The shot had barely grazed him, unlike the scar on his chest still red and crusty but only the size of a dime, a far cry from the hand-sized wound she'd last seen. His leg wound bothered her.
His right leg.
Her right leg.
Her chest aches…Raea put a hand to his bare chest and he smiled, those deep purple eyes brightening. Had she been feeling his pain, even from so far away?
The stroke of his fingers along her cheek sent a rush of longing through her heart. His other hand lifted to put a finger to his lips.
"They are still useful to us. We haven't yet discovered the Eye."
The Eye!
Elis tipped his head down slightly and up again. Did he know? Questions burned on her tongue to learn more but she bit it firmly. What did he know about the Risaal?
How had he survived? He was alive.
He was alive! Nothing in the world could have given her such hope and joy to rival the brightest day.
Nakor Surik hissed.
"Let them finish, Surik."
"Kan Rikku Nakor Surik." Spikes shifted along his neck.
"No more. The Nakor are the minority now. You have no power over us."
This sounded like a fight amongst the Risaal. What was going on?
A sly smile lifted the corners of Elis's mouth. She knew that look—he planned something.
Nakor Surik changed to his true form, the four nostril slits widening. His fingers shifted on his weapon, his eyes sliding to another. A split second later, he whirled, his gun firing, but Nakor Surik fell to the ground at Ronur Kalas's feet with a smoking wound in his back.
A determined woman stood in the doorway bearing one of the Risaal weapons. Raea recognized her, but she was Risaal.
Ronur Kalas looked up. "Well done, Dar Lorel. Now I know where you went."
Dar Lorel's weapon aimed at Ronur Kalas. "I didn't do this for you." Without taking her eyes off Ronur Kalas, she tilted her head towards Raea. "Finish what you were doing."
"Don't, Raea." Nare stood before the opened monolith, determination hard on her face. ["It isn't for them. You told me yourself."]
["Do it. Free the Starfire,"] Elis said.
Free the…
Wait a sec. Did Elis just say what she thought he said? ["You know about the crystal inside?"]
["I…heard them. Dar Lorel doesn't want the Risaal to get it. She'll help us."]
["You trust her?"] Uneasiness climbed through her but the softness of Elis's expression pulled at her heart. Doubts tumbled through her mind, especially those about any Risaal. Human form or not, they were still the aliens who had attacked Inar'Ahben twelve thousand years ago with the intent of destroying it. This group had been among them. How could she trust any of them?
["She's one of the rebels."]
A rebel, as in one of those who passed the Starfire to the Inari?
"Hurry, Raea." Dar Lorel's eyes fixed on Ronur Kalas.
None of the others made a move. Risaal had a strange culture if they allowed such a coup. They all had weapons.
[Listen to her, before the others do react.]
Yeah. Yeah. All right. No pressure or anything.
What of Elis?
"Do it." Man, those purple eyes could make her melt, especially with that soft, deep voice. He'd always been right before. When she didn't listen, bad things happened. She'd learned her lessons.
If he said do it, then this was right.
She still could hardly believe he was alive, but it felt now like the other night had never happened.
Reluctant to leave him, she stood up slowly and joined Nare before the device.
["You're sure about this?"]
Raea met Elis's steady gaze. ["Yes."]
["You can't be serious."] Nare gave Elis a dirty look. When would she give it up? ["What if he's…if he's brainwashed to convince you to do things their way? You can't let them have the crystal."]
["I won't."] She bit her tongue on telling Nare to shut up. She needed silence to figure this out…if she could.
["Then again, he's not exactly the brightest star, more like a black hole."]
["Enough!"] Raea whirled on the blue-haired woman, her heart raging to strangle her while reason controlled her hands. Nare had been so sympathetic when she thought Elis was dead, but now that he was alive, she reverted back to bashing him? Raea struggled against the desire to scream at her. ["Elis is the most intelligent person I know. If I had listened to him, I would never have suffered fighting the Shirukan, and you would not be alive. I'll listen to him because he's always right."]
Maybe now Nare would shut up about Elis and start seeing the truth in him.
Silence. Good.
Raea huffed and pulled her wings back down from lifting with her anger. Now for the controls revealed by the open section.
Red lights. Blue lights. Yellow blinking. Thick tendrils throughout and some smaller. It looked like some magnified nerve cluster. How was she supposed to release the crystal?
"Can you do it?"
Dar Lorel's question grated on her nerves, but a firm hand on her shoulder with the comforting presence behind her lifted her confidence. A familiar scent carried to her the calm strength he offered. The hand slid from her shoulder and rubbed the tension from between her wings, drawing her from the present and into memories and feelings she had feared gone. They would be if she didn't pay attention.
Focus. The Starfire and Atia had shown her how to open the thing.
[We saw no more.]
Great.
"Hurry." Dar Lorel glanced out the open door through which she had come in. "We have company."
Company?
A bare arm reached around her towards a thin strip near the center. ["This looks like it might do something."]
["Good or bad?"]
Elis hesitated. ["What choice do we have?"]
Right. Um…nothing?
Why couldn't these things be easy?
Because this was her life, which apparently had been chosen specifically to make things difficult.
["All right."] He would probably know best. She knew nothing about Inari technology, but she remembered seeing the opened door control box in Naviketan and the organic filaments within serving like wires in human technology.
Elis reached forward and wrapped his fingers around the filament. His Starburst marks glowed.
Aha! Now she got it. He wasn't sure about the controls either, so he interfaced with them. Leave it to Elis to come up with the most obvious solution.
Thank goodness he was alive.
Raea leaned back slightly to feel the warmth of his bare chest on her back. She'd missed him so much, but it all dissipated into the mist of unreality now tha
t she stood with him again, the two of them together as if nothing had happened. Her insides fluttered excitedly and he dropped his free hand to her waist and pressed closer, his breath tickling her ear. For those fleeting seconds, she could imagine them alone.
But those seconds disappeared when the center hissed and dissolved around the aquamarine crystal cluster.
"D'Nuvar!"
The Risaal voice sent a cold shiver down her spine. Raea quickly snatched the crystal in her hands and held it close, forgetting about the danger involved. They would never have it.
The crystal could have hurt her, but no objections came from the entities about her handling them. The voices of the Starfire blended in her head, drowning out Atia and igniting the resonance through Raea.
"Raea…" Elis's voice trailed off.
"You will not have it!" The sharp voice snapped from the dark figure ahead.
The last she saw of the Risaal rushing her faded as the heat of the Starfire's resonance rose through her body with the increase of voices finding unity. A black orb crackled with lightning before her.
Not now! Raea tried to stop the resonance or redirect the energy into something else but couldn't stop them. They formed the portal.
[It cannot wait…Thank you, Raea.]
Stop! They'll collapse the structure on us. The gravity is too strong. That was, if the portal touched the wall. All matter would be disintegrated on contact with the portal if she understood the entities' purpose; those in the cluster wished to return to their dimension, not pass through to materialize somewhere else.
Amid the swirling wind and flashes of lightning, the black ball ceased its growth about two feet wide and not yet touching the wall.
Raea gasped in relief, but the Risaal had gathered at the wall away from the portal with two dead at her feet and Dar Lorel standing with Nare to her left.
"Now what?" Nare asked.
The black sphere exploded outward into a spiraling vortex.
The crystal in her hands glowed with their energy, the voices quiet but the emotions warming through her clear in their intent. Only one option remained.
Raea looked at Dar Lorel, who stared at the portal. That one had helped, and Elis trusted her.
"Do it," Dar Lorel said. "Send it back where it came from." Triple-pointed lenses in those eyes fixed on Raea.
Perhaps the Risaal weren't all bad.
Raea stepped to the edge of the portal, careful not to touch it. "Thank you, Atia."
[Thank you for helping us, and so long. Remember—every moment is precious. Make the most of each.]
I will.
[Farewell, my friend.]
"Farewell." Raea tossed the crystal through the portal. Something shoved her aside, but strong arms caught her from hitting the floor too hard as a dark green blur disappeared through the darkness.
She grunted from the impact on her side and rolled over, her pulse racing in readiness to defend herself.
A second Risaal jumped through after the first.
Only a few remained. She hurried to cut off the resonance and closed the portal before any more died in stupidity. The warmth faded from her body and the black hole shrank and disappeared.
"They shouldn’t have gone." She climbed to her feet with Elis's help.
"Stupid Inari!" One of the Risaal spat and raised its weapon at her.
Not again.
Something flashed.
Raea winced. Nothing happened to her, but something made a heavy thump. She opened her eyes to another Risaal lying on the cement floor of the chamber and a stream of black-clad figures rushing in to surround them.
"Drop your weapons!" The commanding voice came from the doorway, where several armed soldiers stood with weapons raised into position to fire but not at them. Rather, they aimed at the Risaal across the room.
Raea's breath caught, her wings tight between her and Elis, who held her.
The eight remaining Risaal hesitated. None fired, but the tension in the room froze Raea in the midst of waiting for something to happen. Her pulse thumped in her ears.
Someone say something. Please, no shooting… They had to see reason, both human and Risaal.
Seconds ticked away until she could stand it no longer. "Who are you?"
"Major Terrence Shuler, United States Army."
Her stomach twisted. The army was involved? They knew about her? How? What would happen now?
"What do you want?" Elis's calm voice dissipated some of the tension in the room.
"Assuming you are Elis, Raea, and Nare, I have orders to defend you at all costs."
Defend them at all costs…Defend them? The answer jolted her. "Anita." How did she know where they'd gone? Anita was too good at her job. Raea hated it but couldn't help feeling grateful and hated that more; Anita was a pest.
"Yes, ma'am. Miss Cross awaits your return. You will come with us."
"What of them?" Elis asked.
"These…creatures are to be questioned and held."
"We are Risaal," Dar Lorel said, her head held proudly.
Although part of her jumped at the idea of the Risaal receiving the same treatment they had inflicted on her and Elis, the look on Dar Lorel's human face when she met Raea's eyes pleaded for mercy.
"Whatever you are, you're coming with us." Major Shuler motioned to the others, who inched closer.
Not yet. Pity moved Raea to spread her arms to stop them. "Wait. Let me send them home. They won't hurt anyone."
Dar Lorel stepped closer to her. "How can you? You have no ship."
"It's part of the way we use the Starfire."
"Another?" Dar Lorel's eyes shifted to Elis.
"We are the vessel for the entities' powers."
"I see." Was that amusement in the Risaal's voice? "You truly have merged with it. From what I've seen and understand, this was to prevent what we could not."
"Yes." Elis's hand slid around Raea's waist, chasing out the hesitation and the ache in her leg, but he also leaned on her for balance.
"Then we will accept your wisdom." Dar Lorel's eyes returned to Raea with a hint of a smile. "Thank you, Raea, for saving us."
Thanks? A Risaal was actually thanking her? She must have heard that wrong. "Saving you?"
Dar Lorel looked down at the two bodies nearby. "It's a long story." Her eyes lifted to Elis, a look of exhaustion and relief on her face. "Your mate will explain after we're gone. If you can…I'd like to return now. It's been a long time since I've been home."
Guns shifted. "I can't allow that. You will come with us for questioning."
Irritation rubbed Raea's patience raw. "For God's sake, let them go. It's been twelve thousand years since they saw their home." Someone had to see reason. At least no one had fired yet.
["If you're going to do something, you better make it quick."] Nare's eyes shifted around them.
Dar Lorel fingered her weapon. "Do it now."
"You will cease immediately."
Not on his life. Okay, not a good thought.
["Hurry,"] Elis whispered.
Yeah. The soldiers crept closer, their weapons unwavering. Man, she hated being rushed, especially when she wasn't sure of this herself.
Raea focused on the resonance, allowing it to warm through her while focusing on expanding her consciousness beyond herself. A million voices whispered in the background, unintelligible and fleeting, layering upon one another. She had to find the Risaal homeworld. Through the connection with the Starfire, the other dimension opened up, connecting her to infinite worlds at once. Like a beacon, one of those worlds zoomed to the forefront. Although she could not see it, she felt it, like the Risaal standing close to her, a similarity in their energy. That had to be it.
The portal formed before her, expanding in the empty space between the monolith and the wall. Careful not to let it expand too far, she stopped it's diameter at approximately three meters.
The soldiers halted their advance.
"What is that?" Major Shuler asked.<
br />
Raea ignored him and looked aside at the wonder on Dar Lorel's face. "I don't know if it's right, but it's your best chance."
"Is that where Kalas went?"
"No. He's gone. This will take you home."
"What option do I have?" Dar Lorel glanced aside at the soldiers.
{"Is it safe?"} one of the other Risaal asked.
Elis let go of her, a look of concern on his face, but he stared at Dar Lorel. "First, where's Torres?"
"Torres? He's here?" Raea's insides twisted at the possibilities flitting through her head. "They're the—" She glared at the Risaal. "You're the ones after the Eye?"
Dar Lorel stared at the portal. "Were. No more."
"Where is he?" Elis asked.
"Safe. I left him at the stairs. He's still unconscious."
"Unconscious?" She didn't want to imagine what the Risaal had done.
"We—" Elis indicated himself and Dar Lorel. "—Saved his life. They tortured him."
She shuddered and caught movement from the soldiers. The initial shock of the portal was wearing off.
"Nakor Surik tortured him," Dar Lorel corrected. "The one you call Torres will live, but you must hurry. He needs medical attention."
"All right. Just go. We'll take care of him."
Dar Lorel stepped to the edge of the portal, her eyes fixed on the black, spiraling disk. {"Home…"}
"Halt!"
At their commander's voice, the soldiers regained their attention.
"Go!"
Dar Lorel ran through the void.
"Stop them!" Weapons clattered into position, threatening the remaining Risaal.
"Elis!" Nare's hands already glowed. "Wide sweep."
"Got it."
The wide spray of energy covered the soldiers. For a moment, Raea feared for the men and women, but a heartbeat later realized the chance they gave the Risaal.
"Go now!" she called to them.
One rushed ahead, the rest hesitant.
The glare of the Starfire energy from Elis and Nare faded, leaving spots in her vision. "I can't keep it open long."
Still they hesitated, but a glance back startled her. No. The soldiers... Elis wouldn't have—
"They won't stay that way for long," Nare said. Her eyes lifted to the six aliens remaining. "What are you waiting for?"
Silence filled the chamber.
Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) Page 24
