Saved by a Dragon

by Lauren Lively

  "Why Bannack?" Lynx asked with a touch more aggression and suspicion than he intended to put in his voice.

  "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Bannack asked.

  Bannack himself was still only a few days into his mating relationship with Loralia and it seemed that much of the aggression and temper were still lingering in him as the defensiveness in the question caused his body to tense visibly.

  "Calm down," Pyra said, holding one arm out in front of Bannack as if to block the other warrior from advancing on Lynx, "This is his future mate you are talking about. Think about how you would have felt if it was Loralia lying up there in that bed completely helpless and you had never even been able to speak to her much less be with her, but all of us wanted to go in and look at her and touch her."

  "Touch her?"

  Lynx appreciated that Pyra was trying to explain the situation to Bannack in a way that the young and volatile warrior would understand, but mentioning that they were going to touch Rain had Lynx feeling like he was pushing the very edge of his control.

  "Ciyrs might have to," Pyra said to him evenly, "We have to figure out what exactly happened to them that locked them if we are going to be able to figure out how to reverse it, if that is even possible, and that means that we are going to have to examine her as thoroughly as Ciyrs thinks is necessary."

  Lynx could feel his fists clenching and releasing beside him and the urge to lash out at the men was building again. He worried for a moment that the effect of the Covra attack was still lingering inside him and that he was going back into his completely involuntary rage that nearly had him killing his fellow warriors with his bare hands. Pyra didn't seem concerned about his behavior, however, and Lynx realized that he was just feeling what all Denynso men did when they were getting close to their mates. He wanted to hope that the fact that the feeling was intensifying meant that he was, in fact, getting closer to Rain being awake and in his arms.

  "Listen to me, Lynx," Ty said, stepping forward, "If any of us understand what you are going through right now and what you want to do to us, it is the three of us who have found our mates in the last few months. We know exactly what it's like to be angry and frustrated and distrustful of everyone who we thought might be trying to get near our mates. Pyra and Gyyx have even watched Ciyrs heal their mates. Because we understand it, though, is exactly why you need to trust us."

  Lynx looked at the bandages wrapped around Ty's chest just as they had been around his own when he first awoke after the attack. This man was not a warrior by birth but rather a nurturer who devoted himself to making sure that the warriors and the rest of the tribe had what they needed and were kept comfortable and happy, particularly after battles. The arrival of his mate, Samira, however, had brought things out in him that none of the Denynso had ever imagined would exist in his huge but gentle presence. He had not only become as angry and forceful as Lynx was feeling now, but he had stepped forward and agreed to use the power that he had inherited from his father but had never used to battle against the Klimnu. If Ty's mate had transformed him that much; had given him that much power, strength, and courage, Lynx knew that he couldn't just let Rain lie there for a single second longer than she absolutely had to. He couldn't risk not having something so incredible in his life in the full and complete way that she should.

  Chapter Three

  Lynx nodded his agreement and started toward the door of the living room before he could give himself the opportunity to change his mind. He trusted these men and he had to keep reminding himself of that. He was not going to be able to save Rain or any of the other people in the settlement on his own. It was going to take the skills, the insight, and the abilities of all of them together to release the Light Ones from their binds.

  As he climbed the stairs toward the bedroom he could hear Ciyrs close behind him with Pyra coming second and Bannack bringing up the end of their line. He didn't hear any of the other men following behind and he was relieved, happy that they were showing enough respect for him to stay in the living room while the four of them went up to Rain.

  Pyra had never gotten around to explaining to him why he insisted that Bannack go along with them, but as he stepped into the bedroom with Rain and turned to allow the other men to come inside, he could see Bannack's hand mindlessly touching the large silver compact around his neck. He realized then that it was not so much that Pyra wanted Bannack up there with them as he wanted to be able to contact Loralia, and therefore the other women, if he needed to. That compact was their only true connection with the compound with the exception of the men being able to communicate with their mates through their minds, but Lynx knew that they had been so tense throughout the journey that none of them had been able to be open enough to connect with their partners.

  The door closed behind Bannack and the three men looked at Lynx for a few tense seconds. It was as though none of them wanted to be the first one to say anything, or the first one to take a step toward Rain. Lynx finally stepped up to the edge of the bed and smoothed the blanket beside her. For the first time he noticed the clean cut through the blanket over her stomach and the slightest tinge of red around the edge of the torn fabric. He wanted to touch her, but this was not the moment for him to get swept away into one of his visions. In that moment he hoped that there would come a time when he would be able to touch her without that happening. He hadn't even known that he had that ability, and he certainly didn't know how to control it. Of course, if they figure out how to release the people from their locked state he would no longer have any need for the ability. Perhaps it would simply go away when it was no longer necessary.

  "Can you show us, Lynx?" Ciyrs said quietly, breaking through Lynx's musings and bring him back into the reality of the moment.

  "Please be gentle with her," Lynx said, "I know that she is locked, but we don’t really know what that means. She may still have some awareness or be able to feel."

  "I won't hurt her," Ciyrs assured him, stepping up closer to the bed.

  Being careful not to let his hands brush her body, Lynx took hold of the top fold of her blanket and gently peeled it down away from her. It stuck in place briefly before releasing and coming away to reveal the airy nightgown he saw her wearing in his vision and a puncture wound in her stomach. He had noticed the wounds on the other people throughout the settlement, but they hadn't bothered him. This, however, made his body twitch and his face feel hot and tingle with fury.

  "I don't understand," Pyra said, stepping up beside Ciyrs and looking down at Rain, "What was the difference? Why did Lynx, Ty, and Vax become violent and angry when they were cut by the Covra, but the rest of these people were just locked?"

  "Loralia said that her grandfather spoke of them using their enemies to fight themselves by infecting them. That is their primary method of battle."

  "That must mean that they can control when they are infecting a person to turn them into a weapon and when they are locking them. It is a conscious decision, not just a biological effect."

  "You saw that prison, Pyra. You can't think that creatures that were capable of building something like that would just be mindless animals. They are obviously more intelligent and more skilled than we are giving them credit for."

  "Or they know how to manipulate another species into doing the work for them. I can't imagine how those sharp, pointy little legs would be able to build a prison like that. I can, however, see hands like that doing it."

  Pyra gestured toward Rain's hands and a hushed moment fell over the room.

  "If the Covra are able to weaponize anything that they want to," Bannack said, "Why didn't they just do that right along? What happened that they weren’t able to make the Light Ones fight each other? What could have weakened them so much that they couldn't fight, but that they could still lock the entire settlement?"

  The other men shook their heads and Lynx glanced down at Rain again.

  "I guess if they weren't locked by the same type of poison that the Covra
use to turn people into their own personal killing machines, then you can't just use the same tool to draw out the poison and it will make them better."

  "I think that would be a bit too simple," Ciyrs said, reaching forward to gingerly move Rain's gown so that he could better see her damaged skin through the cut in the fabric, "I could try it if you want me to, though. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try every option that we have. I just can't imagine that the Covra would have their last ditch effort of a war be something that could be resolved so easily."

  "I don't think so, either," Lynx agreed, then took a shuddering breath to prepare himself for the next statement he was going to say, "but I think that we should try everything. I don't want to leave her locked for any longer than we have to just because we didn't try something that we thought was too simple."

  Ciyrs nodded and stepped up closer to the edge of the bed. Lynx reluctantly got out of the way, moving closer to the head of the bed to allow Ciyrs to get nearer to Rain. Without taking his eyes off of the injury in Rain's stomach, Ciyrs lowered the bag from his shoulder onto the mattress. He reached into it and withdrew the same tools that he had used to heal Lynx, Ty, and Vax. Lynx couldn't remember what it felt like for the healer to use the strange instrument to draw the poison that the Covra had injected into him out of his body, but it still made him shudder to look at it. It looked painful and invasive, two things that he never wanted Rain to experience.

  "This isn't going to hurt her," Ciyrs said as if he could sense the discomfort and worry that Lynx was feeling.

  "What's going to happen when they do wake up, though?" Lynx asked.

  "What do you mean?" Pyra asked.

  "What's going to happen? If we can figure it out and we do unlock them, what will happen to them? They've been this way for decades. Are they going to wake up and be violent and aggressive and think that we are trying to fight them like the Covra were? Will they be able to understand us when we talk to them so that we can tell them that everything is going to be alright and that we want to help them? Will they even be able to survive? They are locked now and that is keeping them in this suspended state, but if we release the lock are they just going to shrivel up and die because all of these people should probably have died long ago?"

  Everything poured out of him with greater emotion than Lynx had intended, but he felt like he couldn't hold back all of the questions and concerns any longer. As desperately as he wanted to look into Rain's eyes, hear her voice, and complete his bond with her, it terrified him to think about what could go wrong when they finally figure out how to unlock them. As horrific as it was to see her that way, and as heartbreaking as it was to think about never actually getting to be with her, at least when she was this way he knew that she was safe. For as long as she was locked the way she was, she was alive and he could be with her. It was a terrifying balance between wanting to preserve and destroy the same moment.

  Chapter Four

  Loralia was again running through the compound, feeling the ground pushing way beneath her feet as she rushed back from the moss-concealed entrance to her mirror realm in the forest toward the bakery where she hoped that she would find Samira. She was beginning to feel like running was the only thing that she was doing since the men had left. Rather than spending the time that they were gone settling into her new surroundings and helping the other women take care of the compound and prepare for the men's return, she had been running around desperately trying to help her mate even though he was far away. In her heart, though, she knew that there was nothing else that she would really rather be doing. Being close to Bannack, even if that meant helping him fight a battle through the power of her mirrored compact and the one that she had given him, was what mattered to her most.

  "Loralia!"

  She heard her name and skidded to a stop in the middle of the wide dirt road that led to Ty's bakery. Her thick braid swirled and hit her hip as she whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice. She was still learning the women who shared this new home with her, and when she was so lost in her thoughts about Bannack it was incredibly difficult for her to try to decipher which of them it was just through that one word.

  When she turned around for the second time she saw all five of the other women coming toward her, Zuri out in front charging ahead with all of the intensity and commanding of attention that she always exuded, and Eden falling slightly behind as she tried to contend with the large, round belly that cradled Pyra's child.

  "What do you need?" Loralia asked.

  She surprised herself with the ire that came through in her voice when she spoke to them, especially considering she had been seeking them out just as much as they were seeking her out now. Seeing them again, however, only reminded her of the comments that they had made when they last spoke, and the feelings of frustration and anger toward them returned. She had done nothing but be helpful and welcoming to these women since they had first entered her home, but they had admitted that they have a difficult time trusting anyone new, particularly women. Though they had tried to reassure her that they hadn't meant her, that they were only talking about the flight attendant who had betrayed all of them by assisting the Klimnu, Loralia had felt like it was one of those comments that people make that they do not even realize what they have said, when they are revealing what is truly inside them even though they had been trying not to say that particular thing.

  The five women stopped a few feet from her, all of them carrying expressions that showed that they were embarrassed and regretful about the conversation that they had. Loralia tried to remember what it had been like between them on her first night in the compound. She had such a horrible experience with Bannack and they came to her, offering their friendship and their comfort. They told her that they were happy that there was another woman in the compound with them and made her feel, at least for a moment, that they were going to be her friends. Loralia fought within herself to reconnect with how that felt and to keep her mind focused on the benefits that would come from forming relationships with the mates of the other warriors. This was her life now, and she would either assimilate, or be miserable.

  "We have been trying again to contact the men, but haven't been able to. We want to ask if any of them remember being told about this new professor who is supposed to be coming."

  Loralia tensed.

  "You are still so concerned about that?" she asked, "Could it not be possible that you simply forgot about this professor? That you put it out of your mind because you were thinking about other things?" She looked at each of the women, "Why is it so much easier for all of you, so much more natural, to question and be suspicious about everything than it is for you to trust? You pretend that you are so loyal to the Denynso, but you have heard from the king himself that the professor is coming and that he received formal word of it directly from the program and you are still so convinced of your own knowledge of what is going on in the world around you that you will not even believe him."

  She hadn't meant to say all of that, but it had just come out of her. Loralia expected the other women to be angry and yell back at her, or at the very least to storm away from her. Instead, they all looked even more embarrassed as if what she had said finally gotten through to them completely.

  "I'm sorry," Zuri said, offering the words with true, pure emotion that Loralia knew meant she was saying it truly from herself and was not trying to speak for the other women.

  "It's unlikely that any of you are going to be able to get through to your mates. They have been in a battle."

  The five women gasped and Elianna stepped up to Zuri's side.

  "Did Ciyrs not make it to Lynx in time?" she asked, the words sounding as though she had to fight with herself even to get them out of her mouth.

  "No, he did," Loralia answered and watched the tiny woman relax, "but the Covra are vicious and persistent. Even though they are far weakened from when they first encountered the Light Ones, they still hold a grudge. They want to come back and see t
hem, and they are not happy that the men are there."

  "Wait," Samira said, "these are the same creatures? The ones that locked the Light Ones in the first place?"

  "Yes. This species is ancient. They have extremely long lives and it can take many decades for a new generation to be born. The time when they are reproducing is often the most dangerous time for them because the offspring have yet to be born, but the existing generation is getting weaker. That's what I fear is happening now."

  "What do you mean?" Leia asked.

  "The Covra are so old at this point that they have to be close to a new generation or the species would die off. They are also getting weaker, though they are still strong enough to fight the men. I helped them lure and defeat as many of the Covra as they could, but if they are close to their reproductive cycle finishing, there could be thousands of young, strong creatures about to be born."

  "You helped them defeat the ones that were already there?"

  Eden asked this as if it hurt her slightly that Loralia had the opportunity to be involved with the men in this way and the rest of them didn't, but that at the same time she was happy that there was still some connection to them when the other women were unable to use their thoughts to connect with their mates.

  "Yes," Loralia answered, "Bannack and I reflected the structures on the floor of one of the caverns in my home so that the Covra would puncture their eyes on it. That is the only way to kill them."

  "Are they all alright?"

  Loralia looked at Samira regretfully.

  "Ty was injured," she said, "but he's fine now. Ciyrs was right there and he and Pyra and Gyyx were able to get Ty and Vax under control so that Ciyrs could heal them. I'm sure that they are awake by now. That's actually why I was looking for you."

  "Why?" Samira asked, obviously shaken by the news that her mate was hurt in the battle against the Covra.