by Ashley West
"Go faster!" Kaleth hissed, trying to fend off two at a time.
"I'm going as fast as I can," Abby shouted back.
"No!" screamed one of the human men in the cells. "This is wrong. They will destroy us for this!"
Sorrin pitied him, that he'd rather stay locked away than risk the wrath of the Camadors who would surely not care for his wellbeing one way or the other.
"They would destroy you anyway," Kaleth said, dispatching both of her opponents with a flourish. "Do you really think a deal with my kind would keep you safe?"
"She promised!" cried one of the women. "We would be safe. She would let us go!"
"That's right," Abby said, anger clear in her tone. "She'd let you go and then you'd have been her slave forever. Death might be kinder. Now come on."
She wrenched the door open, and Sorrin noticed that for all their complaining, they still followed her out. He had to wonder if the anger and bitterness in her voice was directed at the prisoners or herself, but he didn't really have time to dwell on it.
As soon as the last of the humans had disappeared out the door and Abby and Kaleth were going to follow, the door against the other side of the wall slammed open and a tall, refined, inhumanly beautiful woman stepped into the room.
She was a study in cream and gold and red, and judging from the way she carried herself, and how she walked into the room like she owned it, she had to be the Caran.
Abby's eyes went wide and she shrank back, looking more afraid than he'd ever seen her look before, so Sorrin was fairly certain that his guess was correct. His instinct was to go and put himself between her and the Camador woman, but he stayed rooted to the spot, waiting to see.
"Tsk," the woman said, clicking her tongue. "This will not do."
Her voice was the sweetest music Sorrin had ever heard, and he had to blink to keep himself from leaning in closer to hear more of it. That wasn't what he was here for.
She waved a hand, and those guards who were left stopped fighting immediately, turning to look at and bow to their leader before every single one of them dropped to the floor, prostrating themselves with their arms outstretched and their foreheads pressed to the ground. "Caran," they murmured, voices like a song.
"Better," she said. "Now. I am very disappointed in you." Her eyes landed squarely on Abby, and Sorrin bristled when the blood drained from Abby's face.
"In me?"
"Yes, you. I gave you a simple enough task, I thought. And I thoroughly warned you what would happen should you fail or betray me, did I not? It's as if you were not even listening. Or as if you did not even care about the fate of your planet. Your friends, your family. All of them will die, and we will make sure that they know it is the fault of one stupid little human girl who couldn't even do one thing right."
“I won’t be your pawn!” Abby shouted, hands clenched into fists. “I won’t betray my people. Or...or anyone else.”
Sorrin saw how hard it was for her to keep her eyes from flitting in his direction. He wanted to just assume that most of her words were for show and keep a hold on his anger at her, but it was hard. Abby was a sincere sort of person, he knew that by now, and he knew that it must have hurt her to lie to him. He glanced away.
“Oh, please,” the Caran said, looking bored. “Do not tell me you’ve gone and started to care for one of these brutes. Do you actually believe a creature like this could actually care for you back?”
It didn’t even seem like she knew who Abby was talking about, she was just insulting in a general area, knowing she’d hit someone. The lax way she went about it didn’t make anything better.
“And you, Kaleth,” the Caran continued, turning her gaze to the dark haired woman who had been fighting for them. “If possible, you are an even larger disappointment. I do not expect humans to understand true power when they see it, dull and uninspired creatures that they are, but I expected better from one of my own. What is it, Kaleth? What did they say to you to make you betray me?”
Kaleth was trembling from head to toe, and Sorrin thought it was rage at first, before he noticed that she was trying not to sink into the same bow that the rest of her kind in the room were in. Sorrin could only imagine how it had been carved into her head that the level of respect she was meant to show her leader was non-negotiable, and standing in defiance to it now was actually something he could respect. Creators, what was happening to him? Sympathizing with a Camador. What would come next?
“You have forgotten yourself, Kaleth. You have forgotten what it means to be one of us. Kneel, Kaleth, and perhaps your punishment will not be so harsh.”
She spoke in a mock soothing voice, clearly meant to make Kaleth believe her, and Sorrin watched, waiting to see what she’d do. He wasn’t foolish enough to try and attack the Caran right now while she was holding court and had several of her guards surrounding her. That would be suicide, but he held his sword ready, fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt. He wanted nothing more than to kill her and have done with it. But apparently this production had to play out first. If Kaleth knelt to the Caran, then at least they would know she hadn’t truly been on their side. Or at least that she was easily swayed.
For her part, Kaleth seemed to be resisting as hard as she could. Her body shook, and there was blood running down her fingers where they were clenched into fists from her nails biting into her palms. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and instead of kneeling, she lifted her chin. She held the Caran’s gaze with defiance, and then spat right in the woman’s striking face.
For what felt like a long time, no one moved. No one even dared to breathe, waiting to see what the Caran would do. Such disrespect was clearly not tolerated, and Sorrin wondered if anyone had ever dared to do anything like that before. If they had, they probably hadn’t lived for very long afterwards.
Slowly, the Caran’s face began to change. It morphed from the lovely and terrifying mask it had been into something even more horrifying. It was clear why she was the leader when she changed, her claws were longer, as were her fangs, and her eyes burned red with fire. The screech she let out shook them all to the bones, and Sorrin had to resist the urge to drop his sword so he could clap his hands over his ears and block out the sound. It was terrible to hear and the Caran was terrible to look at, rearing up to her full height and moving to attack.
Kaleth defended herself, meeting her in the middle, and the screeching just grew worse.
Abby was too close. Sorrin could see that. She tried to back away, but with the guards prostrate all around, there wasn’t much room for her to maneuver.
The Caran knocked Kaleth back and then whirled on Abby, glowing red eyes searing into her. “You,” she said, and her voice nearly echoed with her power and fury. “You did this. Humans are a poison, a disease, and you all deserve to die. It will begin with you.” She reached out, and fire gathered at her fingertips, growing and growing until it was a veritable wall of flame.
Abby looked stunned, and she was rooted to the spot for the moment, either from fear or shock or some other paralyzing emotion. Sorrin saw her mouth form the word ‘no’ and then the word ‘help’, and he was running.
Time seemed to slow down for him as he ran, pushing past anyone who was in his way. He knocked down the guards who had remembered their purpose and were getting up to stop him, and he moved past Kaleth, also picking herself up off the ground. As he watched, the flame left the Caran’s fingers, and the seconds seemed to stretch endlessly, measured by the frantic beats of Sorrin’s heart as he pushed his way forward and managed to knock Abby back and out of the way. The flames rushed past him, singeing his nose a bit with how close they came, and then slammed into the back wall, blackening it.
Sorrin breathed a sigh of relief as everything kicked back to normal speed for him. “Stay here,” he said to Abby.
“Sorrin? But—”
“Stay. Here,” he said, hopefully making it clear that he was serious about this. If anything happened to her, if she put herself in da
nger unnecessarily again... He didn’t want to think about it. Sorrin closed the door on the maelstrom of feelings swirling around in him, and he focused on one thing.
This was the woman, the thing, the twisted, evil creature, who had led the assault on his people. When Gollen Par had burned, she’d been at the helm of the attack. She’d probably enjoyed it. It seemed like the sort of thing she would do, burn an entire city just for her own sick amusement. They hadn’t even recovered the bodies of most of the fallen who had died in this city, and Sorrin didn’t want to know what she’d done with them. He didn’t want to know anything except how it would feel to stand over her body and know it was done. For four years, this had been his mission. Revenge had been his motivation, the only thing keeping him going. It had taken the person he’d used to be and turned him into this, and while he’d once wanted to die at the end of this mission, now he wanted to live. He wanted to have that moment of victory, of knowing that he didn’t have to live with this hanging over him anymore.
Sorrin was going to win.
He stepped forward, sword lifted up. His blaster had been discarded somewhere, but that was fine. He could win this with one weapon.
The Caran snorted. “And what do you plan to do here?” she asked, not seeming to care one bit about the sword in her face.
“Kill you,” Sorrin replied, and he began to fight.
Honestly, when he looked back, he wouldn’t even remember the individual moments of the fight. He wouldn't remember the moves he made or the moves that the Caran made. The parries, the dodges, the strikes all blended into each other, becoming a blur of motion that never stopped. His heart races and his breath burned in his lungs, sweat and smoke clouding his senses.
Above it all was the sound of his heartbeat and the way his body moved, muscle memory taking over and allowing his head to focus on the only thing that mattered.
He got wounded, he knew that, sharp hurts that bled and stung, but he couldn't focus on that, either. There was no time. No time for anything but pressing forward again and again.
Sorrin saw the moment when she realized that she had lost. When the fury filled those eyes to the brim and she began to lash out in anger. That was her mistake. One flash of his sword, and Sorrin had sliced off one of her hands, the metal cutting easily through the fine bones of her wrist. One more flash, and he was removing her head, whirling his body through the motion.
When it fell, no one said anything for a beat, and then the guards launched themselves forward. Sorrin thought that perhaps this was the end of him. He was exhausted and aching, and his breath was stuttering in his chest, and if they all fell on him at once, then it would be all over. Not the worst way to go, by far, but...
Before he had time to contemplate that too much, the doors burst open and more warriors poured in, engaging the rest of the guards and leaving Sorrin unharmed.
He slumped back against the wall, one hand pressed to his chest.
It was finished.
In the aftermath of the battle, there was plenty to do. Some of the Camadors had escaped the city when the fighting began in earnest, and they would need to be hunted down. Kaleth was the only one who would be spared, in light of the fact that no one would spit in the Caran's face unless they truly meant to stand against her. Abby glared at anyone who dared question her, demanding that the Camador get medical attention along with everyone else who was wounded.
Amazingly, she was fine. Kaleth had defended her, and no one had managed to lay a hand on her. Most of the other humans were fine, as well, and the human military took over where they were concerned, promising to get them back to their families as soon as possible.
The floating city was a flurry of movement, and Halphia climbed on board as soon as it had been deemed safe.
No one had tried to make Sorrin move from his spot, slumped down against the wall. Maybe they'd seen him fight the Caran, maybe they knew who he was, maybe they had orders to leave him alone. Either way, aside from a few curious glances, people were leaving him be.
Halphia came right over to him, though, and sat down beside him on the floor, heedless of how dirty it was with soot and blood.
"You need to be seen to," she said.
"I know," Sorrin replied.
"Are you alright?" she asked, and that was his friend Halphia asking, not the Senator.
He turned his head to look at her, and her eyes were full of concern. "I don't know," he answered truthfully. "It's finished."
"It is finished," she agreed. "Finally. You did what you said you would do."
"Yes."
"And now you feel strange."
"Yes. Empty, I think."
She nodded her head. "You need a new purpose."
"I suppose so."
"But that can wait. Right now you need to go get those wounds looked at. I don't want you bleeding to death before people have time to hail you as a hero." Her smile was impish as she got to her feet, and Sorrin gave her a look of alarm.
That wasn't what he wanted. He'd just wanted to end this. Judging from the look on her face, Halphia knew that and was going to enjoy his discomfort.
There were a lot of questions still left to be answered, and they were all things only he could deal with. He had to figure out what came next for him, where he would go, what he would do. He supposed he could go back to his apartment. He could regale Caldir with stories of Earth and the fight and finally let Amalda feed him. That would be...normal.
But it didn't feel right.
He wasn't the person he'd been four years ago, but Sorrin didn't think he was the person he'd been four week ago either. With the death of the Caran, it was like a burden had been lifted from him, and he was having a hard time knowing who he was without it. He'd felt old for the last four years of his life, but he was starting to remember that actually, he wasn't, and there was plenty of living ahead of him.
How strange.
And then there was Abby.
Once she had been taken away to be looked at and examined and questioned, he hadn't seen her again. Halphia probably had questions for her, and so would her own government, since she'd played such an integral part in the battle. Sorrin didn't really know what he was going to say to her anyway. Something. Maybe he would apologize. Maybe she would.
Leaving Earth with that unfinished felt...wrong. Leaving Earth at all felt just as strange. By the time he was climbing down the ladder to the floating city for the last time, he just wanted to sleep. Too many thoughts were swirling around his head, leaving him confused and cranky.
For now, he just needed to rest.
Chapter Fourteen: Begin Again
When the dust settled, there were plenty of things still to take care of. The governments of Earth wanted to sit down with the government of the Independent colonies and work out some kind of plan to ensure that this wouldn't happen again. It was the first time that someone from Earth and someone from another planet would sit down at some sort of summit and try to come to an arrangement, but Abby thought it boded well for everyone. It had already been proven that humans and aliens could work together, and establishing trade and safety between Earth and other planets, honestly just seemed like the next step when it came to progress. So that was good.
Kaleth was being hailed as a hero. Not by her own people, of course, but by the humans she had saved. Her actions kept the death toll relatively low on all sides that mattered, and people were endlessly grateful. Seeing as she'd come from a place where she hadn't been appreciated, much less celebrated, her smile was bright every time someone thanked her.
Abby was pleased for her. Honestly, they couldn't have done it without her help, and it was good that everyone knew that.
Her family was coming for a visit, bringing her little sister and the new dog they'd acquired. But primarily coming to make sure she was all in one piece. Abby was more than a little grateful to Sorrin for giving her the push she needed to call them that first time since they wouldn't have to mourn anymore. Having her family bac
k was going to be wonderful. A good step on the path to getting her life back on track. All of those goals she'd had before this had all happened had never gone away, she still wanted them badly. Now she would have the time to work on achieving them.
Sorrin had played a part in making sure she still had that time. As surprised as she'd been at the time, Abby wasn't shocked that Sorrin had saved her life during the battle.
He'd told her that he didn't want anyone else to die at the hands of the Camadors, and apparently that included her. The look of fear in his eyes as that wall of fire had come hurtling at her had been very real, as had the rage in his eyes when he'd whirled on the Caran to take her on directly.
Never had she seen anyone fight like that before, and the fact that a little of it was for her had warmed her inside as she’d gone back to helping Kaleth in order to get the humans out of the cells and then down the ladder to safety.
It had been a team effort all around, and the smoking ruins of the floating city were still in the middle of the lake, a testament to a battle hard fought. If there were any remaining Camadors lurking in the shadows, Halphia’s men were on the job of capturing them. The Senator had gone so far as to promise that she and her people would stay until everything was secure. The American military was backing them up, and while things were going to be chaotic for quite some time, it was a good chaos. It was a chaos that meant things were going to get better.
At least that was what she hoped it meant.
Even with things being resolved around her, there was still unfinished business between her and Sorrin. Even after he had saved her life, there hadn’t been time to thank him. There hadn’t been time for much of anything other than making sure he wouldn’t have to jump in the line of fire for her again, and when things had settled down some and the battle had been declared over, she wasn’t surprised that Sorrin wasn’t waiting for her.
