Lilith waited until she finished. When she spoke, she kept her voice low. “They killed my brother, too.”
“And you enjoyed that, didn’t you?” Tara hissed. “Was he as delicious as Taig?”
Lilith winced. “I don’t remember.”
Tara threw up her hands and spun away. “Get out of here. Don’t show your face to me again.”
Lilith didn’t move. “I came here to tell you I’ll get you out of here if you only listen to me.”
Tara spun back around the other way. “What?”
“I’ll get you out,” Lilith replied. “I’ll help you get Taig and get away.”
The others exchanged glances. “Why would you do that?”
Lilith shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. The important thing is to make sure you get out and make it back to the inhabited territories.”
“How will we do that?” Allen asked.
“It shouldn’t be too hard.” Lilith looked down at their feet and back up to their faces. “You’re Lycaon. You can run back before anybody knows you’re gone.”
Ari snorted. “That’s not likely to happen. There are guards crawling all over this camp. They’re all around this tent and all around Taig. How are we going to get past them?”
“And don’t forget Reina,” Aeifa added. “The boys can’t run as fast as we can, but at least they can run. Reina can’t. She’d never be able to keep up with us.”
Taman frowned. “We can’t trust her, anyway. She’s trying to trick us by offering us a chance to escape. I don’t believe a word she says. She’s the one who did this to Taig. She’s the worst of the bunch.”
A sad smile played on Lilith’s lips. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth. Just take this chance and go while you can.”
Tara crossed her arms over her chest. “None of us is going anywhere on your word until you explain why you’re doing this. None of us has any reason to trust you.”
Lilith cocked her head the other way. “It’s her.”
The whole group gasped. “Aeifa, why her?”
Lilith studied Aeifa. “She reminds me of my mother. She sort of looks like her, with that light colored hair and her eyes. I don’t remember much about my life before I came to the Outliers, but I remember what she looked like.” Lilith shook her head. “I haven’t thought about this for years. I suppose it’s you showing up here that made me think of it.”
“What does that have to do with letting us go?” Tara asked.
“We’ve sacrificed dozens of people, that I can remember,” Lilith replied. “I’ve never seen anybody react the way you did. Or maybe I just didn’t notice the way they reacted. I noticed the way you reacted, though. I never really thought about it before. The Outliers’ customs always seemed normal to me. It’s all I’ve ever known. But when I saw how upset you got about Taig, I started thinking about my mother. I thought maybe she would react that way if she knew about my brother Ledo.”
Tara frowned. “I thought you didn’t care. I thought you didn’t feel anything.”
Lilith lowered her eyes to the ground. “I guess I didn’t.”
“Why should we believe you can feel anything now?” Ari asked.
“I don’t feel anything now,” Lilith told him. “But I guess I don’t want to see what happened to Ledo happen to Taig. I couldn’t do anything for Ledo then, but I can do something for Taig now.”
Tara couldn’t control her shaking hands. “Come with us, Lilith. Get away from these horrible people. You can go back to the Avitras and find your parents.”
Lilith shook her head. “I’ll help you get away, but I won’t go. The Outliers are my people now. I’ve been with them all my life. I can’t change now.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Allen told her. “You helping us proves you’re still alive. You don’t have to stay here.”
Lilith turned away. “I can’t leave. Now come on. I’ll show you how to get away.”
“How are we going to get us past the guards?” Ari asked.
Lilith shrugged. “I drugged them. They won’t wake up any time soon.”
Before anyone could argue with her, she slipped out of the tent into the night, leaving the friends no choice but to follow her. Allen went first. He cocked his ears to hear the soft fall of her feet in the grass. Tara hung close behind him until they found the torches surrounding Taig. Sure enough, a dozen guards lay asleep on the ground. They didn’t stir when the group approached.
Taig’s chin hung down on his chest, and a bruise darkened the side of his face where Lilith hit him with her stick. Reina stepped on dry stick, and Taig’s head shot up with a start. “Who’s there?”
Tara ran to his side, but she dared not touch him. “We’re here, Taig. We’re getting out of here.”
His eyes raced from one side to the other. He yanked at his bonds when he saw Lilith. Blood trickled down his wrists. “Don’t let her come near me.”
Lilith laughed in his face. Her bright teeth shone in the torchlight. “I’m sacrificing a lot more than you think by letting you go. Don’t tempt me to keep you here after all.”
“What do you mean?” Tara asked.
“Don’t you know?” Lilith waved her hand. “I guess you wouldn’t know. The designated gets to pitch the chosen before the sacrifice.”
Tara blinked. “You’re not making sense. What are you saying?”
Lilith smacked her lips. “This is like explaining everything to children. One person gets picked to conduct the sacrificial ritual. Old Ponchy gave me the honor of designating me, and I got to choose who we would sacrifice. I chose him.” She nodded toward Taig. “If I’m going to pitch someone, I might as well pick the best one, and he looked the best to me.”
Aeifa made a disgusted face. “Are you telling us that, after you groped Taig the way you did, you’re going to finish him off before you kill him? You’re going to have sex with him.”
A groan escaped Taig, and the Ursidreans shifted from one foot to the other.
Lilith darted forward. She pressed her body against Taig and ran her tongue up the side of his face. He jerked and struggled, but he couldn’t get away. Lilith bit his ear. Then she stepped back with a cruel laugh. “You love it, don’t you? You wish I could pitch you, just once, don’t you? Wouldn’t you love to get into me, just once before you kick off for the outer stratosphere? Wouldn’t you love to die shooting your strength into me? You know you would.” She laughed at her own joke, but her voice rang hollow in the trees.
Taig fought against his bonds and whined in terror. The others stared at the two in shock. In the end, Lilith turned away. She pulled a metal dagger from her waist and slashed the thongs holding Taig’s wrists. He slumped and almost fell, but Tara ducked under his arm and held him up.
Lilith sniffed at him. “He won’t be running anywhere the way he is. The guards will catch you before the sun gets up.”
“I’ll run out of here,” Taig replied. “I’ll run ‘til I drop.”
“We’ll get him out of here,” Tara told Lilith. “Don’t you worry about that. We’ll get him out if we have to carry him the whole way.”
“You’ll have to,” Lilith replied. “You’ll have to get over that pass in a hurry if you want to get away with your lives. If the Outliers catch you, they won’t bother to bring you back for a second chance.”
“We’ll make it,” Ari exclaimed.
“What about Reina?” Aeifa asked.
“One of us could carry her,” Allen suggested.
“Who could carry her?” Aeifa asked. “You two boys can only just run fast enough to keep up. You couldn’t add a weight like that and expect them to make it out.”
“I would carry her myself,” Tara replied, “but I’ll probably have to carry Taig.”
Taig pushed her away. He took one unsteady step before he caught his balance. “No one’s carrying me. I can run. You see if I don’t keep up with the rest of you.”
Ari spok
e up. “Then I’ll carry Reina. Now come on. We don’t have a lot of time.”
“We’ll be back in Ursidrean territory before sunset,” Allen exclaimed.
Lilith shook her head. “You can’t go back to Ursidrean territory. The Outliers will find you if you go that way.”
“What other way is there?” Tara asked.
Lilith pointed up the pass where they first encountered the Outliers. “When you get to the top of the pass, turn west. Follow that ridge and don’t drop down for anything. It will curve around to the south.”
Allen frowned and stroked his chin. “I noticed that curve of mountains when we passed them last time. They reminded me of something.”
“It’s the Western Divide,” Lilith replied. “It’s the border between Avitras territory and Ursidrean territory.”
Taman’s eyes lit up. “Then we’re home. Once we find the Divide, we can follow it back to Harbeiz.”
Lilith stuck her knife in her belt. “Don’t bother running away at all if you’re going to go that way. You might not trust me, but you’re as good as dead if you go anywhere near Ursidrean territory. The Outliers know you were searching for it, and that’s where they’ll look for you. Follow the Divide until it curves around to run north-south. Then drop down into Avitras territory.”
Ari stiffened. “The Avitras? We can’t go to them. They’ll kill us.”
“We don’t know that,” Tara told him.
“They’ll take you prisoner as soon as you cross the border,” Lilith went on. “They’ll take you to their Alpha.”
“Piwaka?” Aeifa asked.
“He’s an old man,” Lilith replied, “but he favors peace. He’ll listen to you, and he’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”
“You said Piwaka is your father,” Tara countered.
Lilith fixed her with a fierce stare. “He is. Tell him and my mother I sent you.”
“When we tell them where you are,” Allen told her, “they’ll want to get you back.”
She smiled. “That’s exactly why I’m not going with you. I would have to explain what happened to Ledo.”
Tara stared at her. Then she turned away. “I understand. You don’t want to face them after what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Lilith replied. “I was a little child, barely able to understand what was happening. If I hadn’t taken part in the feast, the Outliers would have killed me, too. They would have left me to die in the wilderness where they found me.”
“You still haven’t explained how you wound up out here in the first place,” Ari pointed out.
“That’s because I don’t remember.” Lilith moved away. “Now get on your way. These men won’t stay asleep forever. Get running, and don’t let me see you around here again.”
No one hesitated to be told twice. Tara ran into the trees. Then she paused to make sure Taig could keep up. He trotted at her side, and they picked up speed along the path toward the stream. Taman and Allen came behind at their steady pace. Ari grinned at Reina, who gave him a playful smack on the arm. Then he hitched her up on his back and set off running with the others. He couldn’t run as fast as he usually did, but he kept pace with the Ursidreans, and Aeifa ran behind him in case he needed help.
Taig stumbled once in the tangled undergrowth. Then he found his footing. In a little while, he ran at Tara’s side the way they used to in their own home territory. The wind cooled Tara’s cheeks, and her nose caught the exotic scents of forest all around. She could almost believe they were back home again and none of this ever happened.
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Rohn Sample
Chapter 1
Rose Cooper turned around to watch the rocket shuttle soar away and disappear into the atmosphere. That’s when she noticed the dragon. It waited until the shuttle flew away before it flew out from behind a nearby mountain, circled the landing site and perched on the mountain peak. It exhaled a trail of smoke from its nostrils and ruffled its spiky wings, while eying the newcomers with beady silvery eyes. “I didn’t know there were dragons on this planet.”
Rose’s sister Reyna didn’t look at the dragon. She kept her gaze fixed on the mountain in front of them. “Here they come.”
Rose hurriedly turned around, forgetting all about the dragon. Sure enough, a line of four men stood across the entrance of Harkniss Keep, a massive citadel built directly into the mountain. Besides the towering entrance and a few windows opening out, the mountain looked exactly like all the others in this range along Planet Kratak’s northern continent. Rugged, jagged peaks ran in all directions. Their precipitous cliffs and forbidding summits raked the crystal violet sky. Trackless black forests filled the valleys below so Rose could see the twisting rivers.
The wind howled through the valleys, and Rose pulled down her parka sleeves. It caught her brown hair, tossing it around her head, but not even a puff from the dragon could distract her from the men walking down the hill.
Her teammates stood in a line on either side of Rose to meet the oncoming men. Reyna gave her courage on her right side. Moira Flannery stood to her left. Tanner Montserrat and Whitney Anglesey stood farther off to the left, with Rose’s seventeen-year-old son Ben on the far end.
The men presented the most curious spectacle Rose had ever seen. Her training prepared her to encounter men like this, but she had never met any in her daily life as a doctor in the Allied Command.
The men all stood at least a foot taller than anyone on her team. Some stood much taller, and they all wore long hair tumbling over their powerful shoulders. Their shoulders stuck clear and strong out of their sleeveless shirts. They wore knee-length breeches and no shoes or socks, despite the bracing wind. Each man wore a wide leather buckler hanging diagonally across his chest with a large metal medallion fixed in the center. A stout sword hung from the buckler, and all four men kept their hands on their swords as they approached the strangers.
Two women, one old and one young, stood in the doorway behind the men and did not approach. They unsettled Rose more than anything. Among the Allies, women took charge. They never hung back and waited while men took the lead.
As the men came nearer, Rose got her first good look at the Krataks. Their skin gave the only clue they weren’t human. At first, she mistook the silvery-copper metallic tinge of their skin for a trick of the light. Then she noticed shifting organic patterns swirling just below the surface. Intricate tendrils, leaves, and fronds rose to view and disappeared as quickly as they appeared. She would have taken the patterns for tattoos, except they constantly changed beneath each person’s skin. They gave the skin a colored tinge, and the patterns gave each man a slightly different colored hue.
The white hair of old age set one man off from the rest of the group, though he strode down the hill with all the power and massive size as the others. The strangers stopped in front of Rose’s team, but instead of greeting her, the old man held out his hand to Whitney Anglesey instead. He spoke in a deep, rumbling voice that shook the very ground under their feet. “On behalf of Clan Harkniss, you are welcome to Kratak and our humble Keep. I am Rowan Harkniss, the patriarch of our Clan.”
Whitney shifted from one foot to the other and glanced at Rose. She stepped forward and extended her hand. “Thank you very much, Mr. Harkniss. I’m Rose Cooper, and I’m in command of this team.”
He looked her up and down. Then he accepted her hand. “Of course. My mistake. You are most welcome.”
“This is my sister Reyna Cooper, our genealogist. She’ll be studying your family history and your relations with the other Kratak Clans. This is Moira Flannery. She’s the Allies representative. She’ll conduct any negotiations on behalf of the Allies should you have any concerns from that quarter. This is Whitney Angle
sey, our biologist. He’ll study your environment, and this is Tanner Montserrat. He’s our anthropologist. He’ll study your culture, your architecture, and your language.”
Rowan peered into her eyes. “And what will you do, besides command?”
“I’m the team's doctor. I'll study your general health. We're a scientific mission, but someone has to be in charge, so I got the job. We simply want to learn more about your planet and your culture. You're so different from us and yet so similar in many ways. Your planet is so far out of the way of our usual trade routes, we never even knew you were here until recently.”
“Are you sure that's all you want to do?” The patterns under his skin changed shape and color with his changing mood. They appeared to reflect his thoughts and emotions.
She studied him with a quizzical frown. “Of course. What else could we want to do?”
He turned to Ben. “And who is this young man?”
“This is my son, Ben Cooper.”
“Your son?” Rowan’s eyebrows went up. “You brought your son along?”
“It’s not unusual for our older children to accompany us on scientific research missions. The doctor of our other team, the team visiting Clan Assan, brought his wife and three young daughters. They landed at the same time we did, so I’m sure they’re all getting acquainted with Clan Assan as we speak.”
Rowan considered that. Then he turned to the men with him. “This is my middle son Rohn, and this is my youngest son, Damen. This is my son-in-law, Callan Assan. He comes from Clan Assan.”
She nodded to the other men, but something in their expressions told her to keep her hands to herself.
“And does their team comprise the same number as yours?”
“The same number, with all the same specialties. All our scientific study teams have the same professionals in them.”
His eyes pierced her to the core. “If your teams intend nothing more than scientific study, why did you bring a representative from your Allies? Isn’t that proof the Allies harbor hostile intentions toward our people and our planet?”
Damen (Dragons of Kratak Book 2) Page 79
