by Unknown
Turk sat back on his heels, but he didn’t answer and he didn’t smile. Emily studied the two men. Turk was much too polite to gloat over the victory he won over Faruk without lifting a finger, and Faruk was intelligent and tactful enough to admit Turk’s superiority in this matter. Maybe the hostilities between the Angondran factions really could be solved by reasonable discourse.
Chris busied herself making camp and pretended not to notice the exchange between the men. The fire crackled, and the intoxicating aroma of roasting meat filled the camp. The party sat in silence until Turk took the carcass off its spit and tore it into four pieces. Chris brought him four large leaves from a nearby bush, and he set the pieces on them. Chris added dried berries and cut up tubers to the leaf plates and handed them to Faruk and Emily.
Emily broke the silence. “How far are we from Avitras territory?”
“Another two days’ walk,” Chris replied. “But it’s an easy walk. The country’s not as rugged as the terrain we crossed between Ursidrean territory and the village. We won’t have any trouble.”
“The Avitras will be guarding their border,” Faruk pointed out.
Chris nodded. “They keep their border much better guarded than we do. I wonder how they’re fixed for population. They might not have the same problems we do.”
Faruk waved his hand. “You never know. Aquilla is on good terms with Renier. He could have diverted his warriors from the Felsite border to guard this part of his territory.”
Turk spoke up. “What you mean to say is, he could have diverted his warriors to this part of his territory since the Ursidreans attacked the Felsite. He might anticipate a similar unprovoked attack by the Ursidreans against the Avitras.”
Faruk frowned. He stared into the fire and nodded. “That’s true.”
Turk watched him, but when Faruk didn’t say any more, Turk turned his attention to his food. Emily bristled. “No one knows better than Donen how ill-advised his attack on the Felsite was. I stayed with him and his family in the city, and he regrets it so much he sent word to Renier to ask for peace between our factions. He never would have attacked the Felsite if the Supreme Council hadn’t ordered him to do it.”
Turk listened, but Chris replied instead. “I’m sure all our factions have reasons for doing things the others don’t understand. We’ve all got a lot of work to do to make peace with each other.”
Emily raised her eyes to Chris’s face. The same clear light glowed out of Chris’s eyes. “Do you think all of us—the human women—could have some hand in bringing peace to Angondra? We’re a neutral force, and we’re in every faction. We could bring them back together.”
Chris smiled, but she shook her head. “It’s a nice idea, but I wouldn’t put too much hope into it if I was you. For one thing, the human women on this planet have integrated into their factions. I’m Lycaon now, as Lycaon as Turk or Caleb or any of his family. I know Marissa feels the same way. And Carmen, Renier’s mate, feels she’s fully Felsite. I’m sure Aria considers herself Ursidrean.”
Emily nodded. “She has four sons with Donen.”
“Even you are doing it now,” Chris pointed out. “You refer to the Ursidreans as your own faction. We’ll all work to defend our factions. Look at your cousin Aimee. She joined the Lycaon warriors to defend our border. I’m sure others will do the same thing.”
Emily stared into the fire. “You’re right. I would take up arms to defend the Ursidreans if I had to.”
“And another thing,” Chris went on, “there aren’t any human women with the Aqinas. We wouldn’t be able to get them on board your Peace Train.”
Emily’s head shot up. Then she lowered her eyes and smiled. “I suppose it is an idealistic pipe dream.”
“But a good one,” Chris replied. “You should be proud of yourself for wanting what’s best for all Angondra.”
“This is my home now, isn’t it?” Emily asked. “I’m going to live here for the rest of my life, and I’m going to have family here the way the rest of you are. I don’t want to think about my people or anybody else going to war if there’s anything I can do about it.”
Chris lay back on the ground with the flames flickering on her cheeks. “We’ll see Aquilla in a few days. We’ll find out if he feels the same way.”
“Do you know his mate?” Emily asked. “Do you know the woman who went to live with him?”
Chris shook her head. “I know her name’s Penelope Ann. That’s all I know about her.”
Emily closed her eyes against the penetrating heat. “Aria knows her.”
Chapter 11
“This is it.” Turk pulled his short curved blade out of his tunic. Chris pulled out a blade, too, and Faruk charged his reciprocator. “This is Avitras Territory.”
Emily gazed down the rocky precipice into a lush garden of flowering trees dripping with vines. The screech of animal calls echoed through the canopy, but nothing else moved down there. Rocks dotted the landscape.
Emily didn’t want to enter Avitras territory on a hostile footing, but she copied the others and took out her reciprocator. She still didn’t know how to use it, but at least she would have it out and in her hand in case something happened. Turk started down the slope. He jumped from boulder to boulder with light springs. He and Chris waited at the bottom for Faruk and Emily to climb down, which took much longer.
At the bottom, Turk paused and fixed Emily with a hard glare. “Listen to me. When we get into those trees, the Avitras border guards will surround us. When they demand to know what we’re doing here, it’s all up to you. You have to step forward and convince them you’re here looking for your sisters. Understand?”
Emily nodded, too surprised to say anything.
“When they see a Lycaon and an Ursidrean on their side of the border,” he went on, “they’ll assume the worst. You have to take the lead and start talking fast before they kill us all.”
Emily stared at him, but Chris put out her hand to him. “You’re scaring her.”
“She should be scared,” Turk shot back. “I only hope she’s as scared as I am. What you said back at the stream was right, Emily. You human women can negotiate with different factions in a way no Angondran can. The border guards will listen to you. They won’t listen to us. All our lives are in your hands.”
Emily swallowed. “I understand. I’ll convince them.”
“Good. I think you better lead the way.” He pointed into the trees. “Go straight on. Those trees are in Avitras territory. You can’t go wrong, and the border guards won’t let us pass very far into their territory before they show themselves and try to stop us.”
Emily nodded in mute reply and turned. Chris murmured in her ear. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Emily kept her eyes fixed on the trees. The Avitras waited for her there. From her experience of Angondra so far, they were probably watching the strangers approaching right now.
“One more thing.” Turk kept his voice to a husky whisper. “The Avitras don’t have any weapons as advanced as yours. They use spears and staffs with blades on the ends. If it comes to a fight, we’ll be fighting hand to hand.”
“I won’t be.” Faruk hefted his reciprocator.
Turk chopped the air with his hand. “If they attack us, fall back to our border. They won’t cross into Lycaon territory. Don’t be a hero. Save your lives and fall back. Do you hear me?”
Emily and Chris nodded. Not even the reciprocator in Emily’s hand gave her any comfort. Even Faruk nodded. “We’ll fall back.”
Emily cleared her parched throat. “It won’t come to a fight because I’ll convince them. If we intended to invade, we wouldn’t have brought one Lycaon, one Ursidrean, and two human females. The Avitras are intelligent, just like the rest of the Angondran people. They’ll listen to me.”
She set off for the trees. She kept her attention ahead of her and blocked out the sound of footsteps behind her. Turk’s words rang in her ears. Her friends were depending on her. She strode th
rough the trees, but before she got there, she had an idea. She tucked her reciprocator into her shirt where it couldn’t be seen. When she faced the Avitras, they would see she was unarmed.
The trees closed over her head, and the leaves blocked the sun. Her skin crawled from the cold, and she walked faster. Any moment now……She expected to hear a snap of branches or a rustle of leaves, but when the confrontation came, the Avitras appeared out of nowhere without a sound. They materialized out of thin air, and in a fraction of an instant, they surrounded the party. Their staffs formed a ring around them so they couldn’t move.
The travelers instinctively formed another ring facing out to confront their captors, and Turk and Chris brandished their weapons. Faruk alone kept his composure and held his reciprocator down next to his leg. Emily recovered from her surprise and held up both her empty hands with the palms exposed for the Avitras to see. She didn’t dare step forward.
Large wreaths of feathers encircled the Avitras’ heads instead of hair. Some had brightly colored feathers, while others had more muted colors of grey, brown and tan. Feathers ran down the sides of their arms and legs, and every member of the group stood taller even than Faruk. They menaced the group with their spears. “You invaded our territory. Prepare to pay the penalty.”
Emily raised her voice. “I’m Emily Allen. I was on the Romarie transport that crashed in Lycaon territory. My sisters Frieda and Anna came to your faction, and I’m trying to find them. Please listen to me. We come in peace. We never intended to invade your territory. I only want to find my sisters.”
The Avitras with the brightest feathers swung his staff, and the blades on both ends whistled through the air. Something about his demeanor told Emily he was the leader of this group. Could this be Aquilla, the Avitras Alpha? She had to tread lightly here and keep his attention diverted away from Faruk.
“How dare you enter our territory without permission?” he thundered. “The penalty for invading our territory is death.” Emily opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off with a slice of his staff. “If you wanted to find your sisters, you could have sent word.”
Emily held her hands up in open submission. The position made her feel like a criminal under arrest. She had to change this conversation. “Are you Aquilla? Could you take me to my sisters? You must know which females entered your faction from the Lycaon. Do you know any females named Frieda and Anna Evans?”
He frowned, but he didn’t attack. “I am not Aquilla. I am Piwaka, Captain of the Guard. Aquilla is patrolling the other side of our territory at the moment. But his mate Penelope Ann knows every human female who entered our territory. If your sisters are here, she will know where they are.”
Emily’s spirits soared. “Can you take me to her? My friends and I come in peace. We will leave our weapons behind to prove it if you want us to.”
Turk shot her a terrible glance, but Emily stood her ground. She had to offer this man some assurance of their intentions. He would never listen to her with weapons drawn for battle. Piwaka scanned the group, but he didn’t move. Emily read the thoughts running through his mind. She touched Chris on the elbow. “Lower your weapons.”
Turk let out a vicious growl, and one of the guards jabbed at him with a spear. Emily raised her voice and roared at Turk. “Lower your weapons!”
He obeyed her instantly. His blade hung at his side, and the hair on the back of his neck laid down. The growl died on his lips. Chris lowered her blade, too. Emily surveyed the group. Then she nudged Faruk with her elbow. “Put your reciprocator away, Faruk. We have to show them our intentions are peaceful.”
He hesitated. “We’ll be at their mercy.”
Emily nodded. “That’s the only way they’re going to trust us.”
Faruk fixed his eyes on Piwaka. Then he stuck his reciprocator inside his clothes. Emily turned to the Captain of the Guard. “We won’t fight you or any other Avitras. We only came to find my sisters, and once I see they’re all right, we’ll leave. I swear it.”
Piwaka cocked his head and blinked his brilliant eyes at her. The sun sparkled on his feathers. “Very well. I will take you to Penelope Ann, but you will have to walk in our circle as our prisoners. I will allow you to keep your weapons, but we can’t take any chance you might decide to use them.”
Emily nodded again. “We’ll accept any condition you give us, as long as we find my sisters None of us will use a weapon, and you can take any precautions you need to be certain of that.”
He waved his hand and stepped aside to make a hole in the circle. Emily stepped forward, and the circle moved with them through the trees. Faruk came to her side. He didn’t say anything, and she slipped her hand into his. The familiar comfort of his presence gave her confidence. She was on her way to see her sisters.
Chapter 12
Piwaka stopped at the base of a huge tree. “This is Aquilla’s tree. You’ll find Penelope Ann at the top.”
Emily looked around. “How will I get up there?”
“Climb,” he told her.
Emily studied the trunk and found handholds carved into the wood. Or were they natural features of the bark? “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Faruk put out his hand to touch the trunk, but Piwaka blocked him with his staff. “Only the human can go up.”
Faruk’s eyes blazed. “Where Emily goes, I go.”
Piwaka shook his head. His eyes gleamed. “No. It is forbidden. She came to find her sisters. She will go alone.” He cocked his head the other way. “Unless you have a human sister to find also?”
Faruk narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t answer.
“It’s all right, Faruk,” Emily told him. “I’ll go alone.”
“This is a bad idea,” Faruk muttered.
Chris stepped forward. “What about me? I’m human, too.”
Piwaka shook his head. “No.”
Emily raised her hand to her friends. “It’s all right. I’ll go. I’m the one who wants to see them so badly.”
“What if they decide to keep you here?” Faruk asked. “We might not find you again.”
Emily surveyed the border guards. “I don’t think there’s much chance they’ll want to keep us.”
“If they change their minds about you,” Turk growled, “they could kill us all.”
Emily cast a glance at Piwaka. “They would have done that already if they were going to. He brought me here to ask Penelope Ann about my sisters. I’ll go up and see what she says. Then we’ll go back to Lycaon territory.”
Faruk touched her hand. “Don’t be too long.”
She would have kissed him then and there if Piwaka hadn’t been watching and listening with his head on one side. He blinked at her like a bird, but his eyes sparkled in a way that made her think he might be a kind person underneath his Captain of the Guard exterior.
She put her hand into the first handhold and took a firm grip. “I’ll be back soon.”
She didn’t give herself a chance to hesitate, and once she started climbing, she refused to look down. She learned that much about climbing in search and rescue. She kept her gaze fixed on the treetop above her. What she would find up there, she could only guess. Every step of her journey brought her to this moment.
Her legs and arms burned with the effort of climbing. The solid canopy of trees overhead came closer, but still a great stretch of trunk separated her from the top. She paused more than once to catch her breath and rest her muscles before pushing on.
After what seemed like hours of climbing, she could make out a shape in the treetop above her. A dark mass of branches clumped among the foliage, and when she struggled higher, she recognized it as a little house. Her heart rate quickened, and she climbed faster. Nearer the top, she spotted a head looking down at her over the balcony railing. Blonde hair hung down on either side of it.
The ache in her muscles disappeared and she smiled up at the face, but the face didn’t smile back. It peered down at her as though it had never seen a h
uman being before, but the closer she came, the more certain Emily became that the face was human and female. She pulled herself up to the balcony and threw her leg over the railing.
The woman stood back and regarded her. “You aren’t from the transport, are you?”
Emily stared at her. “Are you Penelope Ann?”
The woman cocked her head. “Who told you that?”
Emily gestured down toward the ground. “Piwaka told me I would find you here. He said this was your tree.”
Penelope Ann glanced over the railing again. “You brought Ursidreans and Lycaon here with you. You shouldn’t have done that. Aquilla won’t like it. Piwaka shouldn’t have let them cross the border.”
“There’s only one Lycaon and one Ursidrean,” Emily told her. “He let them cross because they came here to help me. We heard that my sisters came to you, and Piwaka says you know all the human women who came to the Avitras.”
“That’s true,” Penelope Ann replied. “But I don’t help the Ursidreans or the Lycaon. They’re our enemies.”
“You won’t be helping them,” Emily told her. “You’ll be helping me.”
Penelope Ann shrugged. “Who are your sisters?”
“Frieda and Anna Evans,” Emily replied.
Penelope Ann started to say something when a shadow crossed the door of the house. A familiar voice startled them. “Emily! What are you doing here?”
Emily whirled around. A tall woman with straight brown hair bouncing off her shoulders came to the door. “Anna!”
The sisters rushed into each other’s arms. They held each other and wouldn’t let go for a long time. Penelope Ann watched them without saying anything. Anna took hold of Emily’s hands. “Come inside. You must be famished.”
Emily let her sister guide her into the house and sit her on a low seat by the window. Anna put a wooden dish into her hands, but Emily didn’t look at the food. Her eyes devoured her long-lost sister. “You don’t know how good it is to see you again. I was worried sick about you. How did you get here?”
