Bhyr

by Penelope Fletcher

  ‘We have a final notation, a concern expressed by both the Rä and Verak that you declared the destruction of Od was at the hands of your Horde. While Od is no longer registered and protected by the Alliance Charter, aggression on this level by one of our members is concerning. Is the report accurate?’

  Bhyr felt a shiver of forbidding slide down his spine.

  He nodded.

  A blast of incandescent fury slammed into his head, the invasion ruthless and sudden.

  Why? the voice his mind boomed. Alien. The Godai. Countless perished. Must your species be culled?

  Bhyr tasted iron and rust.

  He staggered, pressing a fist to his temple. ‘I….’

  What monster preys upon the young?

  He couldn’t think.

  The agony doubled, and Bhyr fell to his knees.

  Speak, tyrant.

  ‘I was desperate.’ The shout tore from his throat, fingers digging into his flesh in a futile attempt to ease the pressure. ‘I regret it.’

  The presence crushing his mind dissipated.

  ‘Admission of guilt is accepted, but no punitive action will be taken as Od is no longer a Registered planet. Mating rites of the Azteka are known to this esteemed member. They do not include the raiding of other worlds for mates. Explain.’

  Panting, Bhyr dropped his chin to his chest. The time for hiding how they had diminished had long passed. ‘Our females are all but extinct. They cannot carry our spawn to term. I had no choice.’

  The Premier sighed. ‘Explain.’

  Swallowing the excess moisture flooding his mouth, Bhyr told the council of what had transpired. He held nothing back. By the end, he sat back on his heels, drained.

  Bhyr waited as the Premier and his council debated.

  ‘The freely given confession will be taken into consideration and will be reflected in fines levied. Justice is fair.’ He paused. ‘As for the matings, there is a precedent. Humans, a Sentient yet primitive indigenous species of Category One Protected Planet 2276549 are known to have mated with Advanced Registered Sentients. Your mate speaks for all her kind on Vøtkyr?’

  ‘They voted for her to be their voice, yes.’

  ‘Present her.’

  ‘I cannot. I surrendered them into the care of King Beowyn ThunderClaw. It is not safe. I am at war.’

  ‘Explain.’ He did. A thoughtful pause. ‘Acceptable. You have one hundred Standard Galactic rotations to quell the uprising before Vøtkyr’s status is officially logged as Level Two Quarantined.’

  Bhyr’s stomach clenched. ‘What does this mean?’

  ‘An impenetrable disruption field will be erected around your territory to keep the fighting from spilling over onto other worlds, minimising collateral damage and to protect the innocent.’

  ‘In the meantime?’

  ‘A universal alert will be sent out with an advisory that the political climate on your planet is unstable, but trade many continue at the trader’s own risk.’ The Premier hummed. ‘As for the poached sentients, you have fifty Standard Galactic rotations from the documented end of the conflict on Vøtkyr to present the leader of humans to confirm or deny their wish to remain mated. Failure to produce her for testimony will result in your expulsion from the Alliance. In addition, you are to be fined for the charges you pled guilty to.’ The sum given made Bhyr’s eyes burn. He said not a word against it.

  ‘Understood,’ he replied.

  ‘The Azteka’s population status has been moved from Stable to Extinction Risk.’

  ‘No.’ Bhyr stiffened. ‘I do not wish this fact to be advertised. My enemies will see this as weakness and invade.’

  ‘Your reasoning is sound, however, there are protections in place. Any member that attacks a Registered species under Extinction Risk will be expelled from the Alliance, and the Azteka may call upon Alliance Militia for support against unlawful incursions during this time.’

  Bhyr’s face soured, but he nodded. ‘Very well.’

  ‘So concludes this session. Next!’ The connection ended.

  Bhyr closed his holosphere then put his head in his hands.

  It could have been worse.

  Life carried on and the world outside his shelter filtered through the animal skin walls. The tinny ring of a warrior sharpening his weapon overlaid a heated discussion of the potential whereabouts of the Rebels. Cooking meat wafted into his nostrils and a goodbeast lowed as its master herded it past the doorway.

  Overly warm, Bhyr dusted his hot rock pit then stepped outside.

  Bihter stood from where he’d squatted by the door. His gaze was searching. ‘I thought I heard… Are you well?’

  Bhyr cleared this throat. He must have made enough noise during the Godai’s mental attack that Bihter felt the need to hover. ‘Nothing I cannot handle. The Intergalactic Alliance has been dealt with.’

  ‘Was it so bad?’

  ‘They had their say.’ His head still ached.

  ‘Fines?’

  Bhyr grimaced. ‘It is a good thing our Law evolved. Another raid on Earth would have beggared us.’

  Bihter nodded. ‘Are you ready to secure the farm?’

  ‘The collared females have been gathered at one facility as I ordered?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Have you decided who will lead during our absence?’

  ‘Arj Grhym.’

  ‘Then, yes.’

  ‘Bhyr.’ Bihter hesitated, gaze clouding over. ‘Are you sure you wish me to be your Second? You have many choices. Ohx, Drayg and Grhym to name but a few.’

  ‘You doubt yourself.’

  ‘I let you down. Leaving as I did was selfish and you were right to punish me. I do not know if I have earned this.’

  Bhyr gripped his shoulder and shook him. ‘I failed you, brother. Utterly. If I had listened….’ Bhyr huffed. ‘I failed you. This was always your place. I should not have withheld it from you.’

  ‘Very well.’ Bihter swallowed. ‘Before we go, there is something else I wish to discuss.’ Glancing around, Bihter moved closer and lowered his voice. ‘Did you ever notice any unusual effects after contact with Indira?’

  ‘Other than the obvious?’ He’d changed a world for her.

  Bihter clicked, chagrined. ‘When the humans touch us, it softens our flesh. Have you noticed scratches where before there would be nothing?’

  Bhyr opened his mouth to refute this then closed it. He touched his arm where Indira had scratched him. It had taken spans instead of chimes to heal, and there was a faint scar. His armoured flesh should have been no match for her human claws. ‘She weakens me.’ Barely a moontide of knowing his female and she’d changed him on a cellular level. The muscles along his spine unknotted.

  He felt better knowing her mark was upon him.

  ‘Ohx has been collating information on their human biology and discovered it when he overheard a warrior bragging about how his breeder left tooth marks on his shoulder during their rutting. The oils in their skin secrete a substance that dissolves the bonds on our flesh. It is not dangerous or lethal in itself as our cellular turnover is high enough to replace what is lost, but for a time, you are more vulnerable than before.’

  ‘Not just I. Those of us who chose to embrace humans.’

  ‘Yes. The Rebels will not have this....’ Bihter trailed off looking for a diplomatic name.

  ‘Weakness,’ Bhyr said tiredly. ‘They will not have this weakness.’

  ‘It is not the humans’ fault,’ Bihter said quickly.

  ‘I never said there was blame to assign. It is just one more thing in a long list of things that proves my hubris in bringing them here.’

  ‘You regret it.’ Bihter sounded stricken.

  Bhyr chuckled. ‘Even now I wouldn’t change knowing my Indira. She is the best part of who I am and thinking of it never existing hurts almost as much as her absence.’

  ‘You will see her again,’ Bihter said.

  ‘There are times I feel her with me. As if she is clos
e.’

  ‘Cristina feels far away to me, but I look at the sky and I am hopeful.’ Bihter clasped his shoulder. ‘Just be careful. You are the only one of my generation and the brother of my heart.’ His voice thickened. ‘I fear losing you.’

  ‘I plan to die an old male, my mate beside me and a dozen spawn in my arms.’

  Bihter snorted. ‘I dare you to tell your female that when next you see her. Cristina tells me, “One and done,” as if it is written in stone.’

  A rangy warrior dusted with filth from the trail loped across the camp. He came to a halt before them. ‘First.’ He dipped his head. ‘It might be nothing, but you asked anomalies be reported. We found tracks on the river bank near the northernmost Cascade.’

  Attention drifting elsewhere, Bihter excused himself.

  ‘Our enemy?’ Bhyr inwardly reworked the search for their hidden base should the answer be yes.

  ‘No. One set and the stride is too close, the marks too light. Truth? They look like prints my Amara makes. Only a smaller foot travelling fast.’ He jerked his shoulder in the human way. ‘But the breeders are gone….’ A great longing for his female weighted his voice.

  ‘Did you follow the trail?’

  ‘No. It was a rotation old. We kept to our mission and noted it for further exploration at your order.’

  Bhyr thought it over. ‘Search the area again and follow the trail to its end.’

  ‘If we find anything?’

  ‘Do not act,’ he said disregarding the strange sensation that swept over him hearing a female may be lost and alone in his dangerous land.

  Sending the few scouts he had to cover the same ground was a waste of resources. How had a female been missed? What would she be doing roaming the wilderness?

  It was a foolish thing, so like what his Indira would do, he smiled. Perhaps one of the Arj had defected to the rebellion but his breeder escaped the mass killing? Whatever the reason, she needed to be brought to the safety of his encampment.

  Whichever male had lost track of his female was an idiot. He thanked the gods his own mate was safe and halfway across the galaxy by now.

  ‘If the female is alive ensure her safety and bring me word of it,’ Bhyr said.

  ‘Understood.’

  Impatient to see to the matter of the farms before the war effort began in earnest, Bhyr put the matter of the odd trail marks from his mind and mounted his goodbeast.

  Ohx and Bihter took his flanks, the rest of his Trusted clustered around them. It took two suns at a gallop to travel the fastest road to the nearest farm. It was the same facility he’d shown Indira. While the visit itself had been fraught with tension and recriminations, it brought him comfort during the journey, as memories of Indira always did.

  The rotations since he’d last seen her felt like aeons.

  Within the secret corners of his heart, he harboured a hope the war would end without delay, so he might travel to Vayhalun and hold her in his arms once more. He would never let her go again. Ever. Better yet, he didn’t think she’d let him go, either, and wasn’t his certainty of her devotion an unbeatable strength of its own?

  Was she angry at him? He winced. She’d be calling for his head. Perhaps he could send the Baxnonian a message to make amends? No. That was not safe. It would identify his female from amongst the others. If the trader betrayed him, anonymity was the only thing that might protect Indira until he could reach her. He had a bad moment thinking of what his enemies would do to his fragile mate should they discover her outside his realm of protection. He had to lock his body to stop himself ordering his warship refuelled, so they might chase after them. He reminded himself of the reasons he’d sent her away in the beginning, until he found it easier to breathe and think past the pain of her absence. Did his warriors feel this badly? He debated lifting his restriction on communications with the worlds beyond. Would talking to their mates focus his males or distract them?

  ‘First,’ Ohx rumbled in low, strained tones. ‘Look.’

  Yanked from his thoughts, Bhyr cast his gaze about. His eyesight was keen, but he struggled to understand the lumps scattered across the blanket of fresh snowfall.

  Staccato clicks rolling from his throat, he urged his mount to gallop faster, pushing the giant beast to its limits.

  They entered the farm boundaries and dismounted at the stables located a short distance from the first marker warning of an Aztekan female’s territory. Ohx, Bihter and Drayg left the care of their goodbeasts to the unranked warriors and came swiftly to his side, shadowing his steps in a protective arc.

  ‘Something is wrong,’ Ohx said. ‘Do you smell it?’

  ‘Death,’ Drayg replied.

  The air was laden with its corrosive stench.

  Bihter cursed as they came upon the first female’s nest.

  Drayg jerked to a stop and the corners of his eyes greyed. ‘What have they done?’

  The high spiral of the hive lay discarded, broken and cracked. The attackers had tried to force the female through the top. When that failed, they’d resorted to fire. The hollow structure had been set alight. Blue waxy resin had burned to whitened ash that crumbled on itself, smoky and bitter smelling.

  ‘Where is the female?’ Bihter demanded. ‘Was she taken? What happened to the caretakers? Why have they not reported an attack?’

  ‘Here.’ Drayg wandered past the destruction to kneel by a snow covered mound.

  The males surrounded the misshapen lump. The female had been torn apart. Pieces of her were scattered in a wide radius and the husk of her partially burnt corpse collapsed under the weight of the ice and snow.

  ‘This was done last night,’ Ohx said. ‘She is raw and wet inside. Decomposition has barely set in.’

  ‘Did we not check on the caretakers?’ Bihter asked.

  Drayg nodded, a hand over his mouth, eyes dark. ‘The transfers went smoothly. They knew of the First’s arrival before third sun and to watch for trouble.’

  ‘Then what happened?’ Bihter asked, gripping his head in frustration.

  Bhyr focused on the distance. ‘Someone comes.’

  When the approaching figure staggered and fell, Bhyr picked up his feet into a loose-limbed lope that ate the remaining ground. It was a caretaker. Not the one Indira had met, but another.

  ‘Elder.’ Bhyr went to his knees and propped the old male against his chest.

  ‘First,’ he rasped, battered face slack with relief. He was not long for the world. His eyes were solid grey and blood slicked his chest and cracked lips. ‘First?’

  ‘I listen.’

  ‘They came as you warned. We fought.’ His voice was proud. ‘We did not run.’

  ‘I had no doubt.’ Bhyr nodded when Ohx proffered a pain reliever that would ease the male in his last moments. ‘Your fellow caretakers?’

  ‘Dead.’ His breathing evened as the medicine spread but his face was anguished.

  Bihter cursed then sprung onto his feet to pace.

  ‘They died bravely.’ Anger rose within Bhyr like molten rock, swift and hot.

  ‘We failed you.’

  ‘No, Elder.’ Bhyr placed a gentle hand on his throat. ‘I failed you. As I have failed so many. You bear no blame.’

  Bihter stalked over. ‘Can you tell us which way the Rebels fled.’ He stilled at the lack of response. ‘Elder?’

  Ohx sighed. ‘He is gone.’

  Bhyr set the body down for the male to tend. A terrible thought scratched the back of his mind. His skin felt too tight, his heart rattling his ribcage.

  Bhyr surged onto his feet and ran. He ignored the startled calls of his name and moved faster, dark triangles coming into view.

  A cluster of bodies lay near the entrance of the largest building.

  Three Elders lay dead.

  One blocked the doorway, expression frozen in horror.

  Bhyr leapt over the obstruction and raced through the single-storied building until he burst into the observation room.

  His stride f
altered.

  Bodies.

  They were strewn everywhere his gaze landed.

  ‘No.’ His voice was stripped of its strength. ‘No.’

  The L’Odo lay in pieces where they’d been cut down.

  Huddled in corners and hiding under tables. Clutching offspring now pale and bloated in death.

  ‘No,’ he said again.

  A gentle hand closed over his shoulder. ‘They did it to break you.’ Bihter’s knee touched down on the floor next to his. Bhyr hadn’t realised he’d fallen. ‘They will be punished.’

  ‘First!’ An unranked male burst into the room. ‘We have received a transmission from a long range scout. You will not believe what he found.’

  Pushing onto his feet, Bhyr shoved past the warrior, ignoring his excited babble. He strode from the building and into the open air. It didn’t help. He braced his hands on his knees and sucked in huge lungfuls, unable to catch his breath. The weight of eyes on his back grew heavier and he closed his eyes, turning his head aside. When his eyes opened, they fell on a line of bodies arranged in a neat line, readied for the pyre.

  ‘First?’ The unranked chased him down.

  Bihter joined him outside. ‘Leave him. Tell me what you found.’

  Bhyr would remember to be grateful. He walked until he no longer heard them speaking amongst themselves.

  Coming to a jut of rock surrounded by scrub, his legs folded and his head slammed into the ground.

  I am no different than those who came before me.

  He lay there, trembling, eyes seeing nothing but the horror of that room.

  Broken sounds left him.

  All gone.

  A whole species, all gone.

  Gone.

  He would have to contact the Intergalactic Alliance and report his failure. What small redemption he’d regained through preserving this last piece of Od was gone.

  I want my mate.

  Bhyr needed Indira to speak her biting words while her eyes held his steady and true. He needed to sense her irritation while feeling her body slide over his. She would tell him he was at fault then forgive him. She would shame him to the core then offer the strength he needed to recover.

  He sent her away to save her life. He’d not realised she’d needed to stay to save his.