Trees were not something found in abundance on Datura, let alone trees with bases clustered together the width of houses. The Nuki village was something no hunan could have dared imagine. Which is how I knew I wasn’t dead or dreaming. The rope ladders they dropped for us were woven from a fiber found in the treetops. The wooden planks laying the foundation of the canopy village creaked beneath my weight and no matter how broad the platforms and bridges, the huts built against the trunks of the trees, I felt like I was floating on air. I liked floating in the sea. This felt unnatural and I understood Adi’s refusal to follow me up immediately.
“I don’t care how many bleeding monsters I have to kill tonight, I’m not going up there again, Royal.” Still she did not meet my eye as she forced a smile and pretended to inspect her weapons.
I hesitated only a moment, reluctant to leave her behind.
You’re cracked, Tamn. She’s grieving over Remin and wanted comfort. It meant nothing.
Adi stilled but I could hear the fierce beat of her hearts. I wanted to hate her then for what happened, but the hate had died in me as I died, before the miner brought me back to life.
Adi turned her back to me and stalked off, crushing leaves and undergrowth in her wake. I stared at the empty space she had occupied.
It meant nothing, didn’t it?
“Tamn, come on up. We’re ready for you,” my brother called from above.
This time I didn’t hesitate. I had to believe what Adi said because Qeya was waiting for me. The fact we had been given more than two chances at living and finding one another again was enough to convince me. Soon as the dust wore off, I would swear to never sniff the drug again. I would avoid Adi and her bleeding chole. What happened today would be tucked safely away with my other sins. Only this time, I didn’t have madness and voices to hide behind.
I belong to Qeya. No matter I was the worst kind of monster who didn’t deserve her. Nothing would keep us apart, not Adi or the Var, not even the beings that blew up our home.
Min grasped my arms, emotion heavy in his gray eyes. “Brother, thought we lost you back there.”
Qori laughed softly, subdued from the brassy female I knew her to be. “Of course Tamn cannot even die properly, Min.”
My brother shook his head as he surveyed my wounds, his gaze lingering at my nose. I rubbed it self-consciously, catching a remnant of chole. “What?”
“I didn’t say anything, brother,” Min said.
I straightened and the words came out harsher than I intended. “Adi gave me some dust to counter the poison. How else was I supposed to walk here?”
For the first time, I wondered if my little brother knew I had been sniffing every chance I could. The heaviness in his young face, the lines I didn’t remember spoke otherwise. “We should let Hanea look at you.”
I froze, the breath stolen from me for the second time this day. “Hanea is here?” She hadn’t been with the others before and my mind had been too consumed with Qeya’s hand in mine. Against my will, fresher images arose, swirling patterns tattooed on a slender neck and the press of teeth against my gills.
“Qeya,” I grunted, banishing the traitorous memory, twisting my head to take in the treetop village in vain. “Where is she?”
Min’s reply was not what I wanted to hear. “The Orona can wait. Don’t you want to see our sister first?”
Min and Qori helped steer me down a bridge of ropes and wooden planks. I threw my arm down, breaking their hold and marched in the direction of Qori’s nervous glances. They were hiding something from me.
“Brother, you need to come with us first,” Min insisted. “Just let Hanea look at your wounds. A few of us had trouble with scratches from Var weapons when we stopped long enough to notice. And we should make sure the miner didn’t poison you when she dusted you, aye?”
“Leave Adi out of this. She wouldn’t do such a thing,” I hissed then froze at my brother’s death sudden grip on my collar. His gills flared as he growled a warning in my face. It was the first time Min had stood up to me in this life and it was enough to get my attention.
“You are not bonded to Qeya yet. You are going with me to see our sister. I know you and Hanea have not had the best relationship, but she is the only other family we have left. Also, I don’t know when you started calling the miner by her name, but until she stops pouring dust down your throat, you will steer clear of her, savvy?”
“Min, enough of your steam.” Qori covered Min’s hand with hers, coaxing him to release me. “The Nuki are watching and we need to give them a better first impression of our commander.”
For the first time I noticed the diminutive creatures Adi had described to me standing nearby. They stood a little taller than half our height, walked about in simple if not crude clothing, with weapons hung on belts and across their backs. Their skin was covered in a thick layer of fur, save about their hands and faces. Their deep-set intelligent eyes were cloaked by heavy brows and sensitive mouths gave a softer look to their otherwise harsh features. Several of the Nuki nearest us had their hands on their weapons, poised to strike.
“Let me go, Min, and I swear by all the dead sea gods I will go to Hanea.” I leveled a glare at my brother then, adding, “Once I’m stitched up, you will take me to Qeya.”
Min released me with some reluctance, aided by Qori’s fingers now laced with his. “You weren’t with us, Tamn. Just know this before you put a scythe to my throat later.”
Qori groaned. “Could you possibly keep your trap shut until after Hanea checks him out?”
“Do not be foolish, brother, and try to keep your other voices quiet for a change.” Min grumbled and led me away from prying eyes.
VI : Memory
As we walked, I marked every bridge and platform in the rapidly expanding map in my mind. We passed through what seemed to be the Nuki’s village center, where three large platforms connected. Stalls lined in a circle with elders speaking together near the tree at its center. Children played about the edge while their mothers chatted together. It was like a primitive version of the courtyard before the royal palace back on Datura, only our people intermingled with the Nukis as we had never done with the miners. Kahne and Jymee chased Gem with the other children while Arvex and Bruv sat with the graying elders. I flinched when Bruv lifted his gaze to meet mine, the spitting gill of his father. I lost track of the map in my head after that.
Too quickly we stopped before a smaller hut, connected to the village center by way of two bridges. The glow from a fire burned inside and I wondered briefly how they kept the trees they built into from catching aflame.
“Tamn!” Hanea flung herself into my arms. I caught her without second thought and ground my teeth against the jarring pain. She stiffened and pushed back to sweep her clear gaze over me. “Oh, Tamn, forgive me. I forgot myself. There was rumor one of our own had returned but I didn’t dare hope it was you.”
“I’m here now.” I almost returned my little sister’s wide smile as I took in the pale golden hair flying free from her careless braid. She looked so thin the wind could sweep her away. I wrapped my arms more carefully around her shoulders and pulled her in until Hanea’s hands crept up my back. She released a shuttering sigh and I knew with sickening realization, Min was right.
You care more for the Orona than your flesh and blood.
I hated the voice in my head for speaking the truth. I had always known I was secretly a monster, but now I was certain of it.
“I was so frightened…” She shook in my arms, speaking with halting, gasping breaths. “Mother sent me her memories in the explosion. I could see and feel everything right up until their deaths.”
“I won’t let anything else happen to you ever again.” I lied. I couldn’t promise this. But she squeezed me tighter and sighed against my neck as if she believed me anyway.
Min met my gaze over Hanea’s shoulder and nodded briefly, before pulling Qori away back down the path. I wanted to call him back, demand he stay until
I could make him bring me to Qeya, but their backs were turned. Something about Qori’s words earlier struck me again and I found myself wanting to make a good impression, not just on the Nukis but the other survivors of Datura 3.
Hanea sobbed quietly into my shoulder but did not wail as she might have done before. “It was so terrible, Tamn. I was certain you and Min were gone. Everyone was gone and all I could think about was how unfair it was, that I was still alive while the rest of you were dead.”
I pushed away until I could wipe her tears away. “Do not ever say that. You are our weaver. You are as much a healer as Qeya. We all need you.” It was true. While Qeya had the power to mend souls, Hanea had trained to stitch wounds as well as clothes together, to set broken bones and keep both hearts beating. She had recoiled from such duties in this life, preferring to let our mother handle the brunt of weaving our crew back together.
Hanea sniffed but nodded and seemed to notice the dried blood on my chest for the first time. “Come inside so I can look at that wound properly.”
My sister shared a hesitant smile with me before helping me remove my biosuit, one foul layer at a time. I noticed she was wearing animal skins and furs around her feet. Only her jewelry remained about her neck and wrist, trinkets Arvex gave to appease her. I sat on the edge of a hard bed and let her first cleanse then poke and prod my wound.
“This is already mending…but not quickly enough. It is a miracle you made it here without doing further damage to the healing skin. Was there poison on the spear that struck you?”
I nodded and grunted as she poked briefly along the edge of the hole in my chest.
She sucked in a sharp gasp. “It almost pierced your second heart…”
I stilled her movements, trapping her wrist and waiting for her to meet my eye so she would know. “Just do whatever you need to do.” I had been through worse than this, and the chole would help numb her medicine.
Hanea straightened and wrung her hands before turning to her makeshift work station. “I managed to bring some supplies from the ship. Or, I should say Arvex brought them. I was…not myself for a while.”
“None of us were.” And it pained me to think of my sensitive sister enduring the harsh realities of this new life. If anyone had been meant to be Royal, it was Hanea.
She came back to my side with one of our burners, much like a scanner that reverse concentrated energy on the target. I gripped the bed as she clicked the burner to life. The searing pain of my flesh melting together was bad, but again, not as bad as the time I lost both legs in a previous life.
After, Hanea used a sweet-smelling poultice to coat the flesh. Her touch was gentle to match her tone. “Min told me a little about what you went through to find us.”
Find you? More like stumble upon you.
She smiled at my confusion. “I know you did not hope for other survivors, but we hoped for you. Qeya never gave up. It was a little maddening. She forced us to make sweeps every day. Well, the others made sweeps, at least. I wasn’t much help.”
“Somehow I doubt that.” I closed my eyes as she felt along my legs.
“Did you get hit in the leg too?”
“No.” But I wasn’t sure of that. Only after I stood and removed my pants did I see the sickly black veins snaking down from the wound in my chest, down my hip and covering my leg.
This time I saw fear in Hanea’s clear gaze. She wasn’t the simpering silly girl I left behind. She didn’t hesitate to tell me the truth. “Tamn. How much chole have you been ingesting?”
I pulled my pants back up and slid my arms into my filthy biosuit. “Adi gave me some dust to wake me up. It’s already wearing off.”
Hanea stopped me with a hand to my shoulder. “The poison the Var used seems to be made from the same mineral, according to my scans. Our bodies can only filter out so much before they shut down. She could have killed you.” This time there was real anger in her voice.
I thought of all the hits I had taken in the past days and wondered how much of Hanea’s theory was true. “My leg will clear in another day or two. Don’t worry about me, little sister.” I gently tugged on her braid, then zipped my suit up the rest of the way.
“I’ll need you to stay close so I can monitor that. If you are not careful you could lose your leg.”
“I will be fresh, if you’ll let me see Qeya now.”
Hanea’s shoulder’s slumped. “Before you do, I need to explain a few things about what happened while we were on our own.”
“It doesn’t matter to me what happened in the past. You did what you needed to survive. We have a chance to make a new life here, Hanea.”
She bit her lip again. “You don’t know the other miner, Ohre, but he saved us, saved her numerous times. There is—he has been guarding her hut—ever since we brought her up.”
I surged forward. “What do you mean, brought her? What in leviathan’s teeth is going on?”
“Qeya collapsed just before we were rescued. She hasn’t woken yet… Tamn wait!”
I tripped on my bad leg when I tried to run out the door. Cursing, I moved as quickly as I could in the direction Qori had been looking at before, trusting my instincts to guide me to Qeya. I had been seeking her in every past life I could remember.
Others called my name, but I picked up my pace, determined to outrun them no matter how much it jarred my ruined flesh.
I ducked as I entered the small hut and stumbled against the foot of the bed she lay prostrate in. I couldn’t breathe. Movement at the corner of my eye brought my instincts to life. Sidestepping into the shadows, I grabbed the miner’s arm, twisting it at a painful angle behind his back.
Ohre, they’d called him. The miner wasn’t as tall as me, but he was built thickly of miner muscle and the deep growls coming from his chest sounded too possessive for my liking.
“What did you do to her!” I demanded as I placed my free hand at a nerve point at the base of his neck. All miners were sensitive here. I had been trained all my lives on how to defeat our oldest and worst enemy.
Ohre stiffened but did not fight back, merely spat with a heavily accented voice, “She be alive because of me.”
I hesitated, my sister’s warning slipping back to me. “Ohre—saved us, saved her numerous times.”
Qeya moaned in her sleep and I released the miner to reach her side. I took her cold hand in mine. Her golden lashes fluttered against her cheek as she shifted slightly as if in pain. I held her hand tighter and lowered my head to whisper, “I am here, love. I will always be here.”
The furrows in her brow smoothed and she relaxed against her pillow.
“You be Tamn, aye?” Ohre spoke suddenly and I fought the urge to end him then and there.
He saved their lives. He has earned our honor and respect, my father’s voice cautioned.
The miner spoke again, his words slow and heavy, “She speaks your name often in her sleep. You mated?”
“We were, long before you were born. We will be again.” The words were a mantra I had chanted often since the crash but fell flat against my ears. I twisted my head to face the miner. He stood off in the corner, green eyes bright against his dark skin. “We belong to each other. Can you understand that?” I needed him to agree as much as I needed to forget Adi’s skin against mine.
Ohre said nothing for a long time, but seemed to weigh me in his fierce gaze. Something was different about this miner. He spoke as though the words had not been first on his tongue and the tattoos covering his head and running down his neck were chaotic to be familiar. A distant memory pricked at the back of my mind, but I pushed the voice back before it could cloud my judgement. I needed to be Tamn from now on.
Finally, the miner replied, “You do not deserve her…but neither do I.”
By all rights, I could have ended him for challenging my claim on Qeya. It had been written in stone the day she was born. We had been together countless lifetimes before that, always falling together, ever pulled apart. But all I coul
d think of was how right the miner was. The rules that molded me into who I was no longer applied and I wasn’t sure if they had been right to begin with.
Did I even want the life my elders had mapped out for me? After losing my purpose, my sanity, especially after what I had done with Adi…
I swallowed and nodded. “Thank you for keeping her safe.”
Ohre kept his unwavering gaze on me a beat longer before shifting his attention to Qeya. A softening eased the harsh corners of his face before he turned and slipped out of the hut. I couldn’t help but look after him and question myself for the second time this day.
Was he right? Did I deserve to hope or expect this from her? We had loved one another as long as I could remember, even when we were children, before I remembered what love was. But was it fair to her now, after all we had been through, to force her into a life she never wanted? And what if she didn’t love me like I thought? What if my love made her into something as twisted as I had become on this planet?
VII: Weakness
Min found me as the last light slipped out Qeya’s open doorway. A torch illuminated his face and when I made no move to stir, he spoke. “You need rest.”
“I need to stay with her.” I growled back, wincing at the brightness of the light.
Min released a slow breath. “Ohre can watch her just fine, brother. You must sleep.”
I held Qeya’s hand tighter, silently daring my brother with a cutting glare.
Min rubbed his face with a bandaged hand. “Hanea told me about the chole. She claimed that if you hadn’t already ingested so much, your body wouldn’t have reacted to the Var’s poison.”
I stood too quickly, fury fueling my limbs with fresh water. I wanted to argue, especially when I noticed the miner’s shadow hovering behind Min. But my leg and chest wound screamed back at me and I knew I had already lost. I looked back at Qeya and spoke loudly, for the miner’s benefit. “Do not leave her alone, in case she wakens.”
Min replied after a pause, “You aren’t the only hunan who cares about the Orona, Tamn. And fortunately for you, I care too much to let you continue like this.”
Tamn Page 5
