“No, it is not, Kirian” Tenzin replied softly, watching him with kind understanding. “It is chosen by peers.”
At a loss for words, the tall master sent a beseeching gaze around the dozens of intelligent faces regarding him with such unexpected confidence. He shot a pleading look to Arman who simply nodded and crossed his arms, watching him with calm conviction. Turning at last to Minla, he found her beautiful silver eyes gazing at him with tranquil pride.
“This is not an easy task,” Tenzin went on. “We know it’s a great burden we’re asking you to bear.”
Kirian dropped his eyes to the elder master with miserable resignation. “Why me?”
Tenzin’s brows rose and she smiled quietly, studying his face.
“Because we all respect you,” Anil’s mellow voice rang out. “Your father respected you.”
Niyal waved a hand into the air at the sparkling ship rising up from the cavern floor behind them. “There’s no one more dedicated to protecting Rinzen,” he shouted fervently.
“And all the rest of us,” his wife added, laying a hand on her husband’s shoulder.
Yells of agreement rose and rippled throughout the vast room. Two of Kirian’s top students raised their fists, voicing their support. “It’s true, Master Vall! You’re the best!”
“We trust you, Kirian.” Arman’s steady voice cut through the buzz of the crowd and brought them all to a deferential silence once more. “Everyone knows you’re our best chance at survival.”
Kirian dropped his head and closed his eyes, humbled by the faith these people seemed to find in him. With Sundar gone, he could see that they needed the same kind of anchor he was desperately searching for himself and with a heavy heart, he slowly lowered himself to one knee in front of Tenzin, his long snowy hair falling in a river around his face.
The elder’s small hand came to rest on his head and swept down to caress his cheek. “Thank you, Yeshe Vall. We’re in your debt.”
Kirian cringed inside at hearing the title he associated with his father, but he kept his unease from showing so he didn’t dishonor their wishes any further by expressing his self-doubt. Without a word, Minla stepped forward and picked up an edge of the violet vest lying across Skamár’s hands, lifting until the silky length fell to the floor. The young adept took up the other edge, holding it high in the air, and together the two women slipped the sleeveless garment over Kirian’s right arm and then his left. As he raised himself up off the floor, the vestments fell gracefully to the top of his boots, but the featherweight fabric felt as heavy on his shoulders as a thick coat of iron.
When he lifted his head, Arman’s clear voice rang out into the cavern and was quickly joined by every person present, this time the rich sound melding into a high chord full of energy and hope. The burst of sound lasted just a few short minutes before it dissolved into hoots and cheering for the new yeshe with excited squeals from the youngest members of the colony, surprising Kirian yet again with such an honest outpouring of support.
Minla slid her arm around his waist and lifted her face to plant a kiss on his mouth, smiling broadly as she ran her palm down his chest over the shimmering vest. “It suits you,” she said warmly just as Asti and Niyal stepped up behind Tenzin and their beaming daughter.
“I’m soooooo glad you didn’t disappoint this young lady,” the lanky scholar teased. “She stayed up most of the night to finish a robe that would fit your altitudinous frame.”
“Motherrrr,” Skamár complained through clenched teeth.
“Are you kidding? I knew you’d kill me if I hurt her feelings,” Kirian shot back at his fellow teacher, bringing a chuckle from Niyal and the other well-wishers gathered around them.
“Good to hear someone else is afraid of her besides me,” the smith sniggered loudly, earning a playful swat from his scowling mate.
“Thank you for the hard work you put into this, Skamár,” Kirian offered with a nod to the talented young adept before a large hand landed on his back. As he turned, Arman pulled him into an affectionate hug, gripping him tightly until the tension in Kirian’s body began to drop away.
“It’ll be alright,” Arman’s deep voice soothed against his shoulder before letting him go. “You’ll see.”
Kirian twisted his mouth, giving the big tawny man a doubtful look when Arman abruptly cocked his head, listening intently to something above the chatter in the cavern. Alarmed, Kirian threw his hand in the air and sent out a quick mental call.
Hold, everyone! Arman hears something!
The noise in the room ceased instantly as all ears tuned in to see what the bellmaker’s sharp senses had picked up. For several minutes there was nothing to be heard beyond the soft breathing of several hundred people, but then the unmistakable sound of explosions somewhere up on the surface vibrated throughout the wide cavern.
Kirian’s arms instinctively tightened around Minla as he and Arman exchanged a tense look.
“It’s been eight years since the last attack. I thought they’d given up,” the bellmaker growled. “Why now?”
“I don’t know, but we need to find out if they actually know where we are. Is the cavern between Lhari and Cona beneath the eastern plateau still viable?”
“Last we checked, yes. It’s a mess, but the space and side chambers are big enough to hold us.”
“Then listen through the warding stones to make sure it’s not being hit. If it’s clear, send a broadcast out to everyone in the colony to tell them where we’re going.”
“Right,” Arman acknowledged and disappeared from sight just as another distant explosion reverberated throughout the cavern.
“Kalden, Senga!” Kirian yelled over the sea of heads looking to him for direction. “Take your teams to check the wards up in the ruins of Zhari as well as those in Dasa, Chana, and the Tangra Valley sanctuaries and find out if they’re bombing randomly or just above us. Remote view—don’t go to the surface. We don’t know if they have sensors to pick up your presence.”
“We’re on it!” Kalden confirmed, signaling to a couple dozen people around him before they disappeared from the cavern.
“Niyal, go to the forge and transport all your supplies and equipment to Rinzen. Asti, grab the manuscripts. Minla, take your group to collect the stores. That’s a big job—do you need help?”
“No, we’ve got twenty on our team. We’ll be quick.” His wife raised her face to his and gave him a quick kiss before she waved to several other adepts and popped out of sight.
“Anil, Nandi, get Rinzen warmed up for us. I want all my transporters on the ship now! Ask someone else to get your personal belongings. Ket, Neri,” he called to his students who came running up with wide, earnest eyes. “Your job is to make the rounds after everyone’s on board to make sure no one is left behind. Show me how fast you can transport. Everyone else!” he bellowed, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Two minutes—grab your personal effects and get yourselves onto the ship. Go!”
As people disappeared all over the vast cavern, Kirian finally looked down at the tiny grinning woman standing in front of him. “And you—the devil woman who got me into this,” he snarled affectionately, reaching down to grab both of her slight arms, shaking her gently. “Get your scrawny hide onto that ship before I—” With a soft peel of laughter, the elder dissolved out of his grasp.
Placing his hands on his hips in the middle of the vacated cavern, Kirian turned toward the towering ship, letting his head fall back so he could see her entire form. The glorious vessel was beginning to glow.
Time for a new hiding hole, Rinzen. I’m sorry. It’s not much of an existence.
We’ll do what we must for now.
I want to see you flying through the stars again.
It will happen one day. I believe in you, Kirian Vall.
With a frazzled sigh, the new leader of the Makhás masters formed the proper sound matrix in his mind and transported himself onto the last Khalama starship.
The Zephyr cam
e to a soft touch-down on the wide open landing fields in the eastern sector of Krii, the primary capital of Tarsus. Magnus listened distantly to the sounds of his bridge officers making last-minute adjustments to their consoles before shuffling wordlessly out of the room to disembark. With his forehead on his arms and his dark hair flowing in streams down his back and off the console, he drew in a long breath as he struggled with the wrenching burn that gripped his gut and wouldn’t let go.
Masala was gone, both portals broken and reconfigured to shut them all out. They had fought off Salaal’s growing fleet seven times, weathered his childish taunts and insults, and destroyed a good number of the lethal discs, losing two Meropean vessels and three Birdwings—thankfully not Yuri’s. But today—today, the bastard had somehow managed to cut through their defenses and blast through both portals. Several million people were now condemned to facing the Drahk’s horrific brutality and hungry beasts, a thought Magnus was finding extremely difficult to bear. He felt responsible for their pain and dreadful future—an irrational feeling, but deep nonetheless.
A strong hand landed on his shoulder and gripped it firmly. “You need a break, Mag. I’ll stay on board the ship. Go home.”
“No, it’s ok, I’ll stay. I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on.”
“Magnus,” his brother-in-law said sharply. “It’s the solstice. You need to go home.”
The Tarsian captain took a deep breath and sat back in his chair, raising his face to look up into Alasdair’s perceptive brown eyes.
“Mara needs you.”
“I know,” Magnus admitted. “It’s hard for me to take this home. She deserves better.”
“You’re not protecting her by staying here,” the Caledoni countered. “Share it with her. That’s what relationship is all about—the great stuff and the hard stuff.”
“How would you know?” Magnus threw out in feeble defense. “You’ve been through all kinds of women in the past few years.”
“I know Mara,” the staunch man replied, ignoring his friend’s obvious deflection. “She’s strong enough to help you handle what you’re going through, what we’re all going through. She deserves to have her mate come home, especially on a holiday.”
“What about you? Don’t you usually go out to the fires with someone?”
“Not this time,” Al replied with a soft sigh. “Come on, big man, get yourself up out of that chair. What do you want me to get done off your desk before you come back?”
“All of it,” Magnus droned as he allowed himself to be pried up from his seat and pushed toward the corridor leading to the rear exit. “That’s my price for kicking me out.”
“Slave driver. What I wouldn’t give for Ulu Malawi right now. Begone, foul beastie!” Al commanded in his heaviest brogue, giving Magnus a final slap on the shoulder before he turned down a side hall leading to the captain’s office. “Give the wee bairn a squeeze for me.”
Magnus waved a hand in the air as he sauntered toward the back of the quiet ship. Instead of heading out over the covered bridge to the terminal leading into Fleet Headquarters, he took to the side stairs and descended three flights to the lower docks where the aft cargo bay doors stood wide open. Several crew members who were busy stacking containers to be off-loaded looked up when they heard him approach.
“Do you want me to call a shuttle for you, Captain?” one of them offered when he passed by and started down the open ramp.
“No, thanks. I feel like walking.”
The light of Alcyone’s faintest star was fading as Magnus hit the pavement and started across the vast expanse of the landing field. It felt good to stretch his long legs and get the blood flowing after hours of tense concentration under fire on the battlefield over Masala. The air above the pavement was still warm, but starting to cool as the light disappeared from the clear night sky overhead. The mundane tasks being carried out next to the scattered parked ships and vehicles were a stark contrast to what he imagined was going on right now in Masala’s capital city. These people were all still safe, he thought cheerlessly as he walked, but for how long?
When he passed through one of the doors into the central building of headquarters, he found the halls blessedly quiet since most people were out on leave celebrating the holiday with friends or family. As he made his way through the maze toward an exit on the far side, he passed through a wide lounge area that was empty except for a couple of small women with black braids down their backs. The moment they saw him, they rose and hurried in his direction, pausing a short distance away to give him a respectful bow of greeting.
“Captain Talrésian, please forgive the intrusion,” the taller of the two petite off-worlders began as he reluctantly came to a halt. He knew what the two academics wanted, understood that everyone had a role to play in the odious conflict with the reptiles, but at the moment, he had nothing positive to share with them.
“Shi Mia, Tokaido Kumi, what can I do for you?” he asked politely with a nod after the custom of Alcyone’s twin planets of Chi and Ki.
“We extend our deepest sympathies over today’s loss, Captain,” Mia declared formally. “When we were notified you were back from the battle, we came with our team to see—”
The young biologist’s words trailed off as both women looked up at him, their eyes asking the question that Mia had left unspoken.
“I’m sorry, ladies. No salvage, no captives this time,” Magnus reported without inflection. When the conflict in Merope had begun, the major universities had stepped up to the plate and organized teams ready to study reptilian physiology in the off-chance that something valuable could be gleaned about the alien species sweeping through the Pleiades. Mia and Kumi were both graduate students studying in Krii under the professor overseeing the Tarsian team and had been assigned the thankless job of collecting samples from the fleet if any were to be had.
Mia dropped her eyes to the floor. “I apologize, Captain. I know our work must seem ghoulish,” she mumbled awkwardly.
Magnus recognized instantly that the reserved young woman was embarrassed by the necessity of having to approach fleet personnel every time a ship landed that had been directly involved in a skirmish, no doubt earning them an unpleasant stigma whenever they made their way through headquarters.
“It’s alright, Mia,” he assured her softly. “Come find me anytime. I’ll see what I can do to help the project.”
The two biologists looked up at him in surprise and nodded fervently. “Thank you so much, Cap—”
“—Magnus,” he cut in, causing the women to nod even faster.
“Thank you, … Magnus,” Mia breathed with unfeigned relief. “Many blessings for the solstice.”
As the women scuttled away, he let out a silent exhale and moved on through the sprawling building toward the corridor with the exit closest to his apartment. Pushing through the door out into the periphery of the large compound making up the residential sector of Fleet Headquarters, Magnus strolled through the cool evening air down pathways and past rows of blocky townhouses, nodding at a number of acquaintances who called out to him, until he came to the sidewalk in front of his own building. Turning up the narrow path, he quickened his pace, suddenly anxious to be inside his small sanctuary with his wife and son, and to be able to close the door on the outside world.
As he opened the front latch and stepped in, Mara came running with Kahl balanced on one hip, her honey-brown hair flying and her beautiful face flushed with anguished relief. She reached up with her right hand and pulled him down into a hungry kiss, letting her mouth show him just how much she needed him.
“Mmmmhh,” he rumbled, catching her up in one arm and savoring the sweet feel of her body against him before slowly setting her back down and releasing her mouth.
“I never know if you’re going to come through that door or if an officer will show up to tell me—” She swallowed hard as her trembling voice failed and hot tears spilled out of her soft brown eyes.
“Shhh, I’m here,”
he whispered, kissing her forehead as he reached a hand up to wipe away her tears.
“I wasn’t sure you’d even come home today,” she added with distress. “You stayed away the last time you were on leave.”
Magnus winced at the tone of her voice and sensed how much it had hurt her. “I’m sorry,” he said pulling her close and tucking her head under his chin. “I was just—” He paused again, realizing he had no real excuse. “I’m sorry.”
A little hand batted lightly against his arm and he looked down to see tiny Kahl staring up at him with wide eyes. “Aw, come here little guy,” Magnus crooned, pulling away from Mara so he could lift his son and pull him into his arms, squeezing the small boy tightly which made him giggle. “That’s from your Uncle Al,” he whispered against Kahl’s soft dark hair.
A stray sound from the living room at the back of the townhouse made him turn and lift his head. Mara immediately dropped her eyes and wouldn’t meet his questioning glance. With Kahl straddling his side, he walked past his doleful wife down the short hallway and stopped in his tracks just inside the long room.
“Hello, Mag.” His older brother Dane sat at one end of the sofa against the wall, watching him carefully with piercing blue eyes. Beside the brawny man, their younger sister Shilla perched pensively on the edge of the cushion with her hands on her knees, regarding him with a tense but hopeful expression.
Magnus whirled on his wife, glaring ferociously.
“Don’t be angry with Mara,” Shilla blurted in a rush, jumping to her feet and taking several steps toward him with a pleading hand outstretched. “We asked her if we could come.”
Instinctively, Magnus turned Kahl away from his siblings, rocking the little boy gently to keep his irritation from upsetting the quiet child. “What are you doing here?” he glowered, glancing from Mara’s drawn face to his brother and sister.
“We wanted to see you, Mag. It’s been too long,” Shilla explained wistfully, dropping her hand to her side. “And we wanted to finally meet Mara and Kahl.”
Descent of the Maw Page 5
