“Give Commander some breathing room, Kahne,” Gem snapped.
“Kahne, he shouldn’t fight like this.” Bruv’s face swam into focus, the spitting image of his father Brunan.
I am sorry I couldn’t save him.
My blood turned cold. “What are you doing here? I told you to get Arvex!” I had expected the king to keep the children away.
“Clearly, you cannot not survive without us,” Kahne said as she shifted her blades in either hand and grinned up at me. Her smile did not penetrate the fear in her eyes.
“None of you are ready for this,” I argued.
“Surprised he made it this far,” Gem said with a laugh. “Gods, you reek! You step on a boomer on purpose, Commander?”
I stumbled at the sound of my old title and hated how they insisted on using it now. It recalled too many past lives leading armies of children just like these to their deaths.
“Commander?” Kahne echoed Gem’s concern.
I turned away just as Bruv slipped up underneath my side to help me stand straight. I bit back a shout as his arm wrapped over my exposed skin. His expression was hard but urgent, as though he were the only one of the three who sensed how much danger we were in. The charred flesh of my back should have been warning enough. The black smoke no longer hovered above but settled around us, masking the wailing Var nearby.
Blasts of red energy hurtled through the haze ahead with resounding thuds and screams.
Gem shouted above the din. “Look! Those came from Ohre’s gauntlet!”
I grunted as I struggled to ignore the pain in my limbs and I shuffled after him. “Stay close!” I ordered. Inside I was seething.
I hate that blasted miner.
If I did not find Qeya in one piece, I would make certain the miner died a very slow death.
“Trouble!” Kahne called out and sure as tide, a screaming Var came barreling out of the smoke.
Bruv slipped out from beneath me and ran low to the ground, just beneath the Var’s line of vision. He circled from behind, using his scythe to nick the back of the alien’s joints and then crawled up his crumpled form to slice the neck. Once the Var lay crumbled to the floor, Bruv looked at me expectantly.
I sighed and nodded. “Help me retrieve my scythe and then we go hunting.” I couldn’t hide my shock when Kahne pulled my scythe from her belt with a grin. “Savvy, Commander.”
Gem raised his crude ridgeback jawbone with a whoop. “Let’s hunt some aliens!”
* * *
I found enough strength to run on my own, but Bruv and Kahne remained staunch against my sides. “I will slow you down too much,” I protested.
“Shut it!” Kahne grunted. “This is hard enough without your grumbling.” Her tone caused a smile to smooth the worry lines in my face.
Gem dropped out of the tree he had just climbed, the mud he had freshly painted his face with allowing him to blend in with the smoke and ashes around us. “Hear them, not much further ahead. Also, a herd of ridgebacks is coming this way.” Gem no sooner turned to scout ahead when we heard the creatures snarling and more Var warriors screaming to their deaths. Ahead, I could see hulking shapes leaping to reach taller ones.
“Bank right!” I hissed. We moved like a school of small fins through the thick underbrush, skirting the chaos we were desperate to avoid. I glanced briefly up into the tree tops. A blur of movement was marked by a headful of fiery red hair and my heart stopped in my chest.
“Qeya!” I shouted, but the sound came out more like a wheeze.
Gem came rushing around from the other side of the trees. “Down!”
We dropped in unison. I carefully lay on my side, keeping an eye to the tops. Winged creatures took flight through the smoke and screeched in warning, and then several cries interrupted the ridgeback’s feast. I recognized the call of the Var females.
Gem whispered low, “Var wenches are dicing up the beasts. Ohre’s just above, there.” He pointed again with the jawbone to the large trunk twelve spans to the left of our position.
My mind raced through our options. If we laid low, we might keep our luck long enough for the violence to pass us by. At this point, I was less worried about Qeya and more concerned with keeping the little brats from doing anything stupid. I was not eager to encourage Gem’s newfound bloodlust, or the glee Kahne seemed to find in the fight. It was better to avoid any more confrontation than necessary and so far, besides being blown up, luck was on our side.
Until the king arrived short of breath and with little idea of direction. Arvex would have never seen us had he not tripped over Bruv first. The stoic youngling grunted and glared at our fearless leader with annoyance.
Arvex caught his fall with his golden thermal scythe, only a hand’s breath from my boot. I winced and he looked up at our expectant faces in shock first, then broke out in a typical wide grin. “Here you lot are! No time to jest, mates. Those leaking sirens are after us!”
Bruv gestured toward the dying cries of beasts. “Think they found the ridgebacks first.”
“Then I suggest we move while they are otherwise occupied, unless you want to know what a spearhead feels like through the gut,” Arvex replied.
“Right.” Gem began, “Well, you heard the king. Move your gears.”
“Wait, Gem. Scout ahead first.” I grabbed hold of Arvex’s sleeve. “We need better reconnaissance.”
“Savvy, Commander,” Gem said with a smirk before bounding off.
Kahne snorted. “What a floundering idiot.”
“Close call. Far too close…” Arvex mumbled to himself, then he paused to really look at us for the first time. “Tamn, you look like filsh wastes. How did the younglings get past Hanea? She was supposed to be watching you!”
“Is that even a proper question, Arvex?” Kahne asked.
“Cannot believe the leaking miners ignored my orders.” Arvex growled, ignoring her comment.
“Which miners?” I asked sharply. Arvex opened his mouth to answer when Adi and Remin ran passed. I should have been surprised the elder miner had survived, but I wasn’t.
“Over here!” Arvex hissed at them. The miners double backed and both seemed stricken when they crouched into the brush with the rest of us. “Want to explain what happened back there? You should have been right behind me.”
Adi couldn’t seem to look at anything but my ruined back, lips parted in horror. She didn’t reply when Arvex pressed her again for information and Remin was just as tight gilled.
I couldn’t stop my rage from boiling over. “Drop enough chole dust, miner?”
Adi grimaced and dropped her gaze with a shrug. “Needed a distraction.” But her dusky skin blushed and she pursed her lips.
“Your distraction almost blew my leg off and did blow up an entire village,” I seethed, drawing her surprised gaze. Adi shifted as if she wanted to crawl to my side, then froze when Remin pressed a hand possessively against her leg. I choked on bile and blood at the sight.
So that’s the way of it. Leviathan take you and your bleeding chole.
“We all be sitting ducks clustered together like this,” the elder miner said.
Arvex jumped on board. “Agreed, rest of you move out. Min and Qori should be coming about soon if they have not already found our missing crew and made a break for the village.”
“Aye,” Remin replied. “We will find Captain and Kall before regrouping.” Remin leaned closer to Adi. “Come along, lass.” I savored in the guilt screaming from her dark gaze as they crawled away.
“I’ll follow them in case they decide to blow the rest of the leaking jungle up.” Arvex heaved up with one parting salute. “Bring my sister back in one piece, Tamn.”
I kept my trap shut as my blood boiled hotter. Best not to say anything else that would only waste time. If the ridgebacks hadn’t been causing such a roar, we would have been caught in battle already. If I were honest, I was reeling over the idea of my shuttle shipmates still being alive. Why would the Var let their captives
live this long? Remin had obviously evaded capture, unlike the others, but he should have been ridgeback food a moon ago. And Qeya was somewhere in the middle, trying to save everyone as usual.
“Gem is taking too long,” Bruv grunted a moment before a horn sang across the valley, followed by the Var’s rallying cries.
“Up the trees!” I ordered as dim shapes raced around us in the haze.
Bruv scrambled up one tree, followed by Kahne. I held in the urge to cry out as I used my arms and scythe to climb up the bark after her. Every motion made the charred skin in my back tug apart, exposing the raw bleeding flesh beneath. I couldn’t even make it past the first branch, and opted to cling vertically against the bark. Hopefully, the dimmed smoke would mask my pale features enough. Our kind weren’t exactly made to blend into this world, not like the brown and tan colored Var, or the furred Nuki.
My attention was stolen when, across the clearing, I spotted Qeya. Then our luck ran out and the Var females skirted the clearing, fanning out beneath Qeya’s tree.
Do not leaking breathe, I begged her with my eyes. She bit her lip and nodded.
I was torn between keeping my trap shut and sacrificing myself again so the others could make a clean escape. But something flickered in Qeya’s gaze, in the distance between us and I could almost feel her imploring me back, “Don’t!”
One of the Var females paused beneath the tree next to Qeya’s, kneeling to touch the earth then tasting. I held my breath as she spat and lifted her spear with a burgeoning cry on her lips. A scythe was cast into her back before she could throw.
Gem crowed with manic laughter as he swung into the fray, and rushed one of the Var before she knew what hit her, literally. The jawbone was swung with enough force to snap her neck.
No! I tried to scream but my voice still wasn’t working properly and now there was no bleeding time.
Several branches above me, I watched helplessly as Kahne and Bruv jumped after Gem crying, “Datura!”
I cursed as I dropped to the ground and white-hot pain danced through my bad leg and up my back. I breathed past the pain. I pushed with my remaining strength off the root-tangled ground and readied my blades. I ran after my crew and pulled my scythe arm back in a practiced arc. As I swung and ducked to avoid the pointy end of their spears—too focused on keeping a female half as tall as me from sticking Bruv—when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Another Var pulled back her spear to throw up in the trees. I twisted my neck and heard Qeya gasp somehow above the din and my inner eyelids flickered. With only cursory effort, I swiped my blade against the thigh of the brute poised over Bruv. Bruv landed another blow, forcing the larger female to the ground. But my focus, my entire being was on the Var heaving back her spear, aiming a second spear to meet her mark. Time slowed even as it rushed impossibly past me. A hoarse cry escaped me as I jumped, swinging my scythe in an arc over my head.
The spear left the female’s hand just as my blade connected with the flesh between her head and shoulder.
Qeya screamed.
I landed on the Var, shoving my knuckle blade into her chest and pinning her briefly to the ground. Pain of impact was too great and a world of color fell to white behind my inner eyelids.
Qeya is dead and it is your fault.
But then Kahne was stooped next to me, her mouth working as she screamed over my face. “Get up! Get up, Commander!” My head swam as she helped me stand and we turned to see the miner at last, blasting the last female Var to the next life.
Where were you? I wanted to scream at him, demand an answer. I felt the roar rising inside of me but no sound came out. All my most violent selves were howling inside my head now and it was all I could do to keep from slicing my blade clean through the miner’s short neck. I couldn’t see Qeya’s body and Kahne did not slow down long enough to let me go to her. That was when I discovered I had an even bigger problem. I glanced down to find my blood coating Kahne’s side.
“Is he solid?” Bruv asked from my other side.
“What do you think?” Kahne sobbed. “He is bleeding out! We need the Orona!”
“Ohre has her!” Gem interrupted.
I tried to look back, hope singing through my veins, but their words and my sight grew muffled and blurred and I could concentrate only on the next step and still the next.
* * *
I blinked past the haze, and the pain returned as whoever had half-carried me back to the Nuki village. We weren’t quite there yet, but the air was clear and the scent of chole only clung to our clothes rather than lingering in the air.
Adi…you should have gone with her when she asked. Now it’s too late and Qeya is dead because you cared more about bleeding traditions.
My legs buckled and I sank to my knees. The earth felt soft and nice enough to nap. This day had turned out to be one of the worst since landing in this pit of hell. Yet my sister’s arms were waiting to catch me. Hanea’s voice was shrill in my ear and tainted with fear and blame.
“What happened, Tamn? Thank Creator you brought the children back with you! I am so sorry, I could not stop them from following you. Jymee stayed behind in the village. Min and Qori made it back an age ago. What took you so long?” She put her fingertips to still my open mouth and grimaced.
Distantly, I noticed Arvex arguing with our recovered crewmates, Xame and Kall nearby. The miners, Adi and Remin watched nearby. So they had survived after all, even if they looked a little thin about the gills. Qori and Min, the other two members of my Pioneer shuttle crew, were nowhere to be seen; up in the village watchtower hopefully. Too many had risked their lives today out of foolish impulse. I planned on never letting that happen again.
“It was her fault, wasn’t it? It is always her fault!” Hanea hissed. I followed her line of focus and froze when I saw Qeya limping up to us.
Not dead.
Tears streaked through the layer of grime. I ignored the guilt on her face and the fact her bleeding miner was standing just out of hearing range at the edge of the crew.
“Tamn!” She cried and then she was in my arms. “Forgive me!” She choked back a sob. “I should have never made you come. I should have stayed with you after the blast hit…” Her voice shook, and I pretended it didn’t hurt when she pressed her hands against my charred back.
“Apologize later,” I insisted, wondering why my words slurred so much.
Qeya cursed as though finally noticing my condition and began barking questions at Kahne and Hanea. It wasn’t such a good idea to confront my sister, I thought to warn her.
“If you had stayed with him instead of rushing off to save that one’s worthless hide,” Hanea began.
Too late.
“Shut your trap!” Qeya cried. “He’s lost too much blood. Tamn, look at me, love. Please? I am so sorry, I will never leave you again, I swear it!” Her skin began to hum deliciously as her fingers reached past my torn shirt to my chest.
“No, your leg,” I protested, but she took my hand and lowered it back to my side with a soft smile.
“It’s all right. Already healed on its own, I promise. Let me help you, Tamn.”
I nodded and a sensation, cool as the waves on Home World brushed against my consciousness. Everything crashed back into painful focus as Qeya healed me, closing the gaping wounds and smoothing burns. There would be more than a few scars to remind us both of this day.
When the pain let up, I registered the argument taking place between the king and my crewmates. “I speak for my father and both your fathers when I say you’re making a mistake! Am I the only one who thinks this is madness?” Arvex was awful about putting his foot in his mouth at times, brand new to the role he was born to. But my crewmates had no right to challenge his authority. It was time everyone woke up and smelled the ashes.
“Enough!” I grasped Qeya’s hand in mine. “We cannot pretend we’re living on Datura 3 anymore. But Xame, you still must show respect for Arvex as our king.” I nodded to the golden boy and was surprise
d to see a reflection of his father in his surprised smile.
Not that you have earned it just yet. But this wasn’t about me. This was for all of us. I redirected my attention to the Captain. “You said it yourself. Your brother and his father live inside of him as much as you. We cannot treat Arvex like a youngling.”
I took a moment to meet each one of their gazes before continuing, “And this isn’t the old world. In this new world, we must adapt if we are to survive. Don’t forget, it is because of the miners that any of us are alive now.” My gaze found Adi’s and I suddenly found the desire to tell her I had been a fool, just like she said.
Remin moved into her space, effectively blocking her and breaking our connection. I resisted the urge to shove my knuckle blade into his leaking back.
Qeya squeezed my hand, drawing me back from my anger and I found both love and sorrow at war in her golden eyes. A lump grew in my throat because I knew that while she meant the gesture to be reassuring, she was nowhere near at peace.
I finally understood I had a decision to make for the both of us, one I knew Qeya wouldn’t like.
Epilogue
The first time the Orona had truly healed me was the mission before we came to Nukvar, off the outer rim of a cluster of gaseous worlds. Adi had been too eager to open the rig, without checking to see if all the scans had checked out first. I had tried to stop her before she could twist the valve that would unlock it. But she fought me on it and I had barely dragged her by the gears out of there before the metal overheated. It scalded my torso through the bodysuit, a less than favorable sensation.
When it hadn’t been healing properly, Adi and Min had been concerned. I’d ignored them, especially after we came back onboard Datura 3, until I ran into Qeya.
Her full lips had curved into that special smile I used to secretly treasure and did my best to ignore.
“Tamn, how could you be so stupid, trying to talk sense into a miner?” Qeya asked as she peeled aside my sad attempt at a bandage to inspect the damage. Something like a hiss escaped her lips and I looked down at her, intrigued by the revulsion on her face.
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