Chris blushed with shame. She thought she kept those thoughts of ditching him at the first opportunity hidden in her own heart and mind. But she didn’t count on his ability to read her body language. He knew all along how much she wanted to dump him the first time she found a protector to take his place.
Now he was dumping her instead. She pleaded with him with her eyes, but he walked to the door. He glanced back at her before he disappeared. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.” Then he was gone.
Chris stared at the empty place where he used to be. She would never find what she was looking for, now that he was gone. She thought she was looking for a way off this planet, when she was looking for him all along. What would she do without him?
What good were her horses back home without the solid foundation he gave her? None of it meant anything, especially not some city with windows. How could she be so shallow, so ignorant? He trekked halfway across the planet to support her, even when he knew her quest was hopeless and vain.
Why did he bother? It sure wasn’t out of curiosity, to find out what she would do. He said that to set her at ease, so he wouldn’t have to tell her to her face that he cared about her and respected what she was trying to do. That would only embarrass her and send her running in the opposite direction. He understood her better than she understood herself.
And now he was gone. Leaving was the surest way he could show her what they had between them. She would never value him until she lost him. Now all she cared about was getting him back. She would trek all the way back to Lycaon territory to find him and win his heart again.
Chapter 12
Chris turned away from that door. Her heart ached, but she wouldn’t show Carmen and Renier that. She could barely look them in the eye.
Carmen and Renier waited on their platform. What would they think of her exceptional rudeness? “Come sit down,” Carmen called. “We have a lot to talk about.”
Renier shifted his weight on the platform. He studied Chris for a moment. Then he stood up. “I better leave you two alone. You probably want to talk in private.”
Chris and Carmen spoke at the same time. “You don’t have to leave.”
He looked from one to the other and laughed. “Now I’m certain you should talk in private. I’m going down to the parapet to review the formation. You can call me when you need me.” He walked out of the room.
Chris stared down at the floor, but Carmen smiled. “Come sit down. You’re making me uncomfortable standing there like that.”
Chris stepped closer to the platform, but she couldn’t bring herself to sit down. She didn’t know this woman. She couldn’t tuck her legs under her and cuddle up like they were best girl friends, not in a strange city on an alien planet with hundreds of armed warriors surrounding the place.
Carmen waited, but when Chris didn’t join her, she sighed and leaned back on the platform. She almost laid down. “You’re the first human being I’ve seen besides my friends since I landed here. How did you get here?”
Chris fiddled with her fingernails. “I was abducted by the Romarie, along with about fifty other women. I didn’t know I’d been abducted until the ship crashed here. The Lycaon found us and took us to their village. Then I got the wacky idea of finding you and your friends to help me get off this planet. I left the Lycaon to come here, and Turk came with me.” She cast a glance over her shoulder toward the door.
Carmen cocked her head on one side. “That was very kind of him to accompany you here.”
Chris lowered her eyes. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have stayed where I was. Marissa told me there was no way off this planet. I should have believed her.”
Carmen stared at her. “You’ve seen Marissa? How is she?”
“She’s just fine,” Chris replied. “She seems very happy and settled in the village. I wish I could be like her.”
Carmen chuckled. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. We all went through a period of upheaval when we first came here, including Marissa. There’s nothing unusual about that. You’ve lost your home and everything you loved on Earth. It’s going to take a while before you get over that. I don’t blame you for wanting to get back to Earth. I went through the same thing when I first came here.”
Chris’s eyes widened. “You did?”
Carmen nodded. “I thought if the four of us stayed together, we could find a way to escape. I didn’t really start to settle here until all my friends left to live with other factions and I was left alone. I went to pieces. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help to my friends when they really needed me.”
Chris shook her head. “Not everyone goes to pieces. I’ve seen some women who stayed strong, and they wind up paying for it in the end.”
“Who?” Carmen asked.
Chris looked away. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Carmen sniffed. “All right. Let’s talk about your plan to get off this planet.”
“I don’t have a plan,” Chris replied. “That’s why I’m here. I was hoping you or one of the others would have a plan.”
Carmen laughed. “Me? I don’t have any plan. I’m mated to Renier, and the others are all mated, too. I don’t think any of them has the slightest intention of leaving Angondra—not now.”
“What about Aria?” Chris asked.
“What about Aria?” Carmen returned.
Chris shifted from one foot to the other. “I thought she might know if the Ursidreans have any technology we could use. Marissa says they used to travel in space. Maybe they still have an old ship that flies.”
Carmen narrowed her eyes. “Aria has twin children and another set of twins on the way. She won’t leave them behind, and you can forget about taking them or any other Angondran back to Earth. That includes Turk. You understand that, don’t you? If you leave, you leave him.”
Chris wedged her toe between two bricks on the floor. “I know.”
“And you still want to go through with it?” Carmen asked.
Chris didn’t say anything. Her ears and cheeks burned.
Carmen sighed. “Okay. I’ll do what I can to put you in touch with Aria. I’ll even take you to Ursidrean territory to find her. Her mate Donen is Alpha of the Ursidreans. If anybody knows what technology they have, it’s him. There’s just one problem.”
Chris’ head shot up. “What’s that?”
“Hostilities just broke out between the Felsite and the Ursidreans,” Carmen replied. “We had an incident along our border with them, and four of their warriors killed a Felsite woman and her two cubs while they were walking in the woods. The Ursidreans claimed they didn’t know they were in our territory. They said they thought the woman and the cubs were on their side of the border.”
Chris frowned. “They shouldn’t have killed a defenseless woman and her children no matter where they were. Even if they crossed the border, they should have spared them.”
“That’s what Renier said,” Carmen replied. “But the leader of the warrior cadre is Donen’s uncle. He won’t back down, and some other political nonsense makes Donen support him. There has been some other hostile confrontations between our factions along that border, and the situation escalated until now nothing can stop it. We expect an attack from them any time.”
Chris’s mouth fell open. “Any time? You mean, like, now?”
Carmen nodded.
“So that’s why the warriors are all on guard outside the city,” Chris murmured.
“Why did you think they were there?” Carmen stared at Chris. “You didn’t think it was because of you!”
Chris faltered. “One of your scouts—his name is Manu—he said we could spark a war by crossing the border the way we did. He attacked Turk with his spear. He would have killed him if another scout hadn’t intervened.”
“Who was the scout that intervened?” Carmen asked.
“Jaro,” Chris replied. “He’s kind of small—for an Angondran.”
Carmen smiled and nodded. “I know who
you mean. You don’t have to worry about Manu. He won’t last long on the border. He’s too short tempered. And you had nothing to do with the troops coming out. Manu told Renier Turk was coming in. Renier would have welcomed him if you’d come at a different time.”
“I guess that means we can’t go looking for Aria,” Chris remarked.
Chris shrugged. “It’s not the best timing in the world.”
At that moment, a tremendous clanging noise shook the city walls. Chris jumped out of her skin, and even Carmen started alert and craned her neck toward the front window. On the plain below them, more warriors rushed over the parapet and into the fields beyond the city. Renier’s voice echoed up from the ground, and Chris spotted him standing on the wall. He pointed out over the plain toward the distant line of trees.
Carmen caught her breath. Chris turned toward her, but when she tried to speak, her words came out in a whisper. “What is it?”
“They’re here,” Carmen croaked. “The Ursidreans are here.”
Chris shook to the soles of her shoes. What would happen to her now? She traveled to this city in search of some stability. Now war threatened to engulf her. Why couldn’t she be satisfied in the Lycaon village—or the forest?
She looked around. Where was Turk? If she could only find him, he just might be able to find a way out of this mess. She scanned the scores of men arrayed in front of the city, but he wouldn’t be down there. He would be halfway over the pass on his way back to his own territory, free and safe. Her heart sank. “I have to get out of here.”
“You can’t go now,” Carmen told her.
Chris stiffened. Had she really said those words out loud, or did she only think them? “I don’t belong here. I shouldn’t be here.”
“You can’t leave now,” Carmen repeated. “It isn’t safe.”
At that moment, a black line rose out of the flat plain. Dots of light shone in the darkness and lit up a massive army arrayed across the far hills.
Carmen gasped. “The Ursidreans!”
Before either woman could react, a jet of fire burst out of the Ursidrean line. A rocket soared into the night sky and lit the plain as bright as day. Every detail of the Felsite warriors’ armor and weapons, every hair of their manes, stood out in bold relief.
Then the rocket smashed into the city. The edifice trembled to its foundation. Carmen grabbed a corner post on the platform to steady herself. “Come on.”
She grabbed Chris by the hand and hauled her toward the door, but Chris hung back. “Where are we going?”
“We can’t stay here,” Carmen replied. “The rockets will come through the front windows. We’ll be sitting ducks.”
Chris tagged after her, out the door, but when Carmen turned up another flight of stairs instead of down, Chris dug in her heels. “Can’t we just leave?”
Carmen waved her hand toward the window. “They’ve got the city surrounded. We can’t get out no matter which way we go. Come with me. I’ll take you somewhere safe where we can watch what’s going on.”
Carmen led the way farther up into the very top of the city. She pushed open a heavy wooden door and they entered another room. Dozens of female Felsite crowded around an open balcony overlooking the battle. Chris hesitated. “Won’t this be as dangerous as the window?”
“They won’t hit us here,” Carmen replied. “They’ll aim their rockets for the center of the city. If they aimed up here, the rockets would sail right over us.”
Chris frowned. “I don’t know about that.”
Carmen pushed her way into the room and peered over the balcony. “They’re advancing.”
Sure enough, the Ursidrean line snaked down the hill and across the plain. Their own lights showed where they were. The Felsite couldn’t match their weapons. The Ursidreans had nothing to fear from them.
Rockets crashed into the city. The buildings shuddered under Chris’s feet, but the Felsite ranks held firm and waited for the Ursidreans to cross the plain. They took their sweet time about it. They lumbered along at a plodding walk, and their machines and cannons rolled over the grass at the same steady pace.
When they got halfway across the field, Renier lifted his enormous blade on high and gave a shout. The troops around his legs took up the shout, and the ranks broke formation and surged forward. Spears and swords and clubs bristled above them, and shouting voices drifted up through the dark.
Chris leaned over to get a better look. How did she wind up here when she meant to hang back? She should be searching for a way out of this place instead of gawking at the battle. Then, with a clash of metal and a blood-curdling screech, the Felsite warriors closed with the Ursidreans. Heavy bodies flew at each other with every weapon available, and the fight was on.
The order of both ranks fell apart, and the battle descended into chaos. Renier dove into the heat of the fight. His blade and his club swung back and forth and above his head. Ursidreans fell on either side of him, and he strode through their ranks, mowing them down. A band of warriors surrounded him, and they cut through the Ursidreans on their way toward the great cannons laying rockets on the city.
All at once, Carmen strained over the balcony and pointed into the thick of combat. “Look!”
Chris followed the direction of her arm and spotted a wiry figure moving through the battle. He didn’t have a mane like the Felsite, and his arms and shoulders were too slender to be an Ursidrean. The flood lights caught his black hair and blunted nose, and Chris recognized the features of the Lycaon. She caught her breath. “Turk!”
Chapter 13
“What’s he doing there?” Carmen asked.
Chris pushed herself back from the balcony. “He must have gotten caught between the ranks when he tried to leave the city.”
“He shouldn’t be there,” Carmen remarked. “Both armies will view him as an enemy.”
Chris wasn’t listening. She elbowed her way through the crowd toward the door.
Carmen called after her. “Where are you going?”
“I have to help him,” Chris called back. “He’ll be killed down there.”
“But you’re unarmed,” Carmen cried. “You can’t go down there.”
Chris didn’t answer. She was already on her way down the stairs two at a time. She raced through the deserted city to the flat ground behind the parapet, where she jumped up on the wall to see better. The Ursidreans recovered from the initial Felsite attack and gained the upper hand. Their cannons and siege machines thundered over the plain, and one of the buildings near the top of the city caved in.
Chris breathed a sigh of relief. She’d escaped that death trap just in time. But she didn’t have time to celebrate now. The Felsite fell back in front of their enemies, and the phalanx twisted and turned toward the river.
The Ursidreans pressed their advantage. They had all the advantage of numbers, weapons, technology, and physical strength. What did the Felsite have? Only their incredible bravery, their agility and speed. A Felsite could outmaneuver an Ursidrean any day of the week.
The Ursidreans drove the Felsite down into the river bottom. The Felsite splashed through the water in a desperate effort to reform their defense, but the Ursidreans kept them on the back foot. They attacked the Felsite with clubs and spears, but they also used some kind of energy blast weapon the Felsite couldn’t match.
Renier still dominated the field and crushed any Ursidrean who came near him. He darted forward and back, slashing with his club and breaking heads, until none of them dared engage him. His guard kept a loose circle around him, and together they cut a swath through the Ursidrean ranks.
Chris surveyed the scene from the wall, and her heart went out to Renier. He would conquer these invaders and drive them out of his territory. But then she caught sight of an Ursidrean standing on the running board of a siege machine near the back of the Ursidrean line. He observed the battle with a cool, determined eye. He spoke into a hand piece, and his amplified voice echoed down the line of cannons. He was directing
the battle. He must be Donen, the Alpha Ursidrean.
He spotted Renier and recognized him. He had to defeat Renier to conquer the city. He gestured to the machine’s driver. Then he jumped to the ground with a long-handled staff blade in one hand and an energy blaster in the other.
A handful of Ursidreans surrounded him in an instant, and the group set off toward Renier. Chris scanned the battle scene. Renier didn’t see Donen coming. He was too busy crushing Ursidreans right and left. Then her eye fell on Turk.
Armed with only his short hunting blade and whatever heavy stick he could pick up from the ground, he fought his way through the battle as best he could. But his quick eye caught sight of Donen striding through the trees. He leapt clear of two Ursidreans closing in on him and raced toward Renier. His lips curled back from his teeth in a snarl.
Chris couldn’t wait any longer. She jumped off the parapet and ran for her life down the field. What was she going to do down there, with no weapons, no training, no heightened senses to see in the dark? She ought to be running the other way to get as far away from this battle as possible.
Only one thought dominated her mind. She had to get to Turk. She had to protect him somehow, or die fighting with him. She couldn’t let him face the Ursidreans alone. If the Felsite couldn’t stand against them, he certainly couldn’t.
Donen raised his blaster and fired into the trees. He hit a Felsite warrior, and the man flew back and landed against a tree. He lay still and panting, and Chris recognized Manu. Was he alive or dead? She didn’t have time to wonder. When he flew aside, a space opened up between Donen and Renier. Donen’s hand tightened on his weapon, and nothing stood between him and his enemy.
Turk ran through the trees, hurdling fallen tree trunks and prostrate Ursidreans. He slashed a Felsite aside with his blade and ran on. Renier rounded on Donen, but he couldn’t reach the Ursidrean leader with any of his weapons at that distance. Donen had him just where he wanted him. Turk dashed through the trees on an intercept course between the two Alphas. He was going to throw himself into the path of the blaster.
At that moment, the cannon went off again. A rocket whined through the air and exploded behind Chris. She crouched for protection from flying shards of brick and splintering wood, but another rocket sailed overhead and landed near the first one. She looked in every direction, but she couldn’t move. Another rocket might hit her at any moment.
Saved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 2) Page 62
