Aimee nodded toward the slope. “I’m going to run up. I’ll see you at the top.”
“But how will you find your way?” Emily asked.
“I’ll find it.” Aimee tightened her boot laces. “What about you, Chris? Do you want to come along and stretch your legs?”
Chris shot her a grin. “Don’t mind if I do. I can’t stand sitting still. Come on, Turk. Let’s race ‘em.”
Turk leapt to the ground and nodded up to Caleb. “We’ll see you up there.”
Caleb laughed, and in an instant, the sound dwindled to nothing behind them. Aimee led the way, and the wind stripped the torpor and tension from her mind. Treetops whipped past overhead, and her feet barely touched the ground.
A few minutes later, Chris inched up next to her. Aimee put on a fresh burst of speed. Chris matched her, and Turk dropped back to let them race up the mountain. The track jutted up steep escarpments to peaks high above, but Aimee pumped her legs harder and inhaled the crisp mountain air. She flew over the ground with Chris at her side.
The track narrowed until it forced them to run single file. Aimee didn’t stop until she broke through the escarpment and ran out onto a pinnacle of rock. She looked back down the mountain to the column far below.
The sun shone on the mountain peak, but the mountain cast the column into shadow. The Ursidrean machines carried lights powered by their engines, and the long line of fireflies threaded across the plain to the foot of the Divide.
Chris chuckled at her side. “Did you see the looks on their faces when you said you were going to run up the mountain? It was priceless.”
“I don’t know how they can sit there, hour after hour,” Aimee replied. “I wish I’d run the whole way, but I didn’t want to offend Donen after he offered to let us ride with him.”
“They won’t be here for hours,” Turk remarked. “Where should we camp?”
Aimee gazed down the other side of the mountain. Vast forests stretched as far as the eye could see. “The Avitras are around down there somewhere. We probably shouldn’t approach their border if we can help it.”
“We already have,” Turk replied. “The top of these mountains is the border between the Avitras and the Ursidreans. As soon as they detect us here, they’ll send out their Guards to confront us.”
“We better stay here, then.” Chris looked around. “There’s nothing to build a shelter or a fire. Maybe we should wait for the others down in the trees.”
Aimee sat down on the rock. “It’s a warm night. I’m going to stay here and watch until they come.”
“Let’s stay up here,” Turk agreed. “It could be dawn by the time they come.”
Sure enough, the stream of lights took all night to wind through the defiles and up the steep Divide. The first streaks of dawn lightened the sky when Renier stepped of his palanquin and looked around. “Where should we camp?”
Aimee stretched her stiff legs. “That’s what we were wondering. There’s nowhere to camp up here—nowhere big enough for all of us, anyway.”
Menlo strode up from the Ursidrean column and pointed down the Divide. “There’s a flat place farther down that might work. It’s rock, but it’s sheltered from the wind and close enough to the forest to build a fire.”
He led the way to an expanse of rock set between two mountain peaks. Renier nodded. “This will do. We can collect firewood from those trees, and I can hear water running down in the forest.”
Aimee listened. “Those trees and that water are on the Avitras side of the border. What if the Avitras consider our camping here an intrusion on their territory?”
Renier frowned. “You’re right. We can’t start our negotiation that way.”
“What’s the alternative?” Anna asked. “There’s nowhere else to camp.”
Aimee kept her voice low. “There are plenty of places to camp. There just aren’t any other places to camp for this many people.”
Turk stepped forward. “Aimee’s right. We shouldn’t have all these soldiers and warriors so close to the border. It looks dangerous because it is.”
Donen threw back his shoulders. “Right. Faruk, order the Ursidrean troops to fall back to the forest below the escarpment. They’ll find plenty of firewood and water down there, and they’ll be out of the wind.”
Renier gave a shrill whistle. “My people will fall back with you. The Alphas and their mates, and Faruk and Menlo, Anna and Emily and Aimee, will all stay up here to keep an eye on the border in case any Avitras show up and start asking questions.”
He waved his arm to his men, but before anyone could move, a gust of wind burst through the trees. Aimee barely had time to glance in that direction when an enormous band of Avitras soared out of the trees. Their wings spread behind them in bright colored fans that reflected the rising sun and blinded everyone. They rose over the assembled armies and landed in a line stretching from one end of the rock to the other.
Faruk and Menlo whirled around with their phase reciprocators pointed at the Avitras. A murmur rippled through the Ursidrean ranks, and the siege guns crackled to life. Renier’s hand flew to his blade, but he stopped himself from drawing it. His men didn’t show the same restraint, though. They rushed toward the Avitras with every sinew tensed and ready to fight.
One Avitras darted forward to confront them. He looked younger than the others and slighter built, but his eyes blazed with fury and he swung his double-bladed staff at his aggressors. “What are you doing, amassing for attack inside our border? This is an act of war, and I will respond in kind.”
Menlo bellowed back at him. “We aren’t inside your border, Aquilla. We’re west of the Divide and well within Ursidrean territory. You know that.”
Aquilla bared his teeth at the burly Ursidrean. “You! I should have known you were behind this. I never should have let you leave my territory alive. I won’t make the same mistake again, and the Ursidreans will regret the day they provoked me.”
Menlo drew his lips back from his teeth in a snarl, but Donen laid his hand on Menlo’s arm. “Don’t waste your breath. It won’t do any good.”
Anna stepped forward. “What about me, Aquilla? Will you kill me, too, for crossing your border?”
Aquilla rounded on her. “You’re the one who let that....that creature loose when I had him prisoner. You’re dead to me already.”
Carmen stepped forward. “What about me, Aquilla? Do you remember me? I came to visit you and Penelope Ann when we first landed on this planet. Am I dead to you, too?”
Aquilla ran his eye down the battle line. “Did the Felsite come to invade my territory, too?”
“No one came to invade your territory,” Carmen replied. “We came to discuss peace with you.”
He glared at her. “Peace—between the Avitras and....who? The Ursidreans? The Felsite? Don’t make me choke.”
Emily joined her friends in front of the two armies. “Where’s Piwaka? Does he feel the same way you do?”
Aquilla frowned. “What does Piwaka have to do with this?”
A taller, thicker-set Avitras moved to Aquilla’s side. “I’m right here. If you have anything to say to me, say it now.”
Chris took Aimee by the hand, and they and Aria walked forward. The seven women formed their own line blocking the three armies from each other.
“We came to talk peace with you,” Carmen told him. “All of us have made our homes on Angondra, but we’ve remained close friends, even though we belong to different factions. The Angondran factions could accomplish the same thing. You’re one people, even though you have different ways of living and different adaptations to your habitats. You could live in peace with each other and respect each other, instead of slaughtering each other in these senseless wars and threatening your entire race.”
“None of the factions has enough warriors to guard the borders anymore,” Emily added. “When we came to live here, all the factions were desperate for females to rebuild their populati
ons after the plague. Another war would devastate your population and you would never recover. Make peace now, and work together to make Angondra thrive.”
Aquilla didn’t slacken his stance in the slightest, but Aimee noticed a sparkle in Piwaka’s eyes. Their arguments made sense to him. He was listening. He noticed her watching him, and his eyes gravitated to her face. Her heart fluttered, and she looked away.
Aquilla pointed at a spot behind them. “Avitras territory extends to the edge of that rock. You’re all trespassing on my territory. I have the sovereign right to slaughter all of you right here and now.”
Emily sighed. Chris turned to her friends and spoke in an undertone. “Obviously there’s some misunderstanding about the border.”
“No wonder they’ve had so many wars,” Aimee added.
“If only Penelope Ann was here,” Carmen exclaimed. “She could smooth this over.”
Piwaka interrupted their conversation. “She is here.”
The women spun around and found him staring at them with curious intensity. Then he turned toward the treeline and made a clicking noise with his tongue. A tall woman with long blonde hair stepped out of the trees and approached the line.
Carmen gasped. “Penelope Ann!” Marissa started forward, but Chris held her back. “Not yet.”
Penelope Ann took her place at Aquilla’s side. “It’s good to see you all again.”
“We’ve come to negotiate peace between all the factions,” Marissa told her. “Help us, Penelope Ann. Help us bring peace to Angondra.”
Penelope Ann regarded them with cool detachment. The sight of her made Aimee shiver. “How can you negotiate peace at the same time you’re invading our territory?”
The women glanced at each other. Their plans couldn’t end like this. Donen rounded on his troops and waved his arm in the air. “Fall back! Faruk, take the troops down past the escarpment. Take the cannon and the transporters all the way down to the plain so the Avitras can see them from the Divide. Let no doubt remain in anyone’s mind that we’re on our own side of the border.”
Renier joined him giving orders to his men. “Take everyone back and camp next to the Ursidreans. Don’t leave even one person behind but me and Carmen.”
His lieutenant said something Aimee didn’t catch, but Renier cut him off. “Do as I say. No questions.”
Donen bellowed to his troops. “Fall back!”
The clash of metal and the pounding of feet crossed the rock and dropped down the track the way they came. In a moment, only Donen, Renier, Turk, and Caleb remained of the two armies. The seven women faced the Avitras.
Aquilla held firm, but Penelope Ann wavered. Her eyes skipped from Marissa to Carmen to Aria and back again. She even cast a glance toward Anna.
“We came with entirely peaceful intentions,” Marissa told them. “We’ve just sent all our troops back into our own territory to prove it to you. If you really want to slaughter us all, we won’t be able to defend ourselves, and you’ll have to start with us. You have no reason not to believe us.”
“I won’t make peace with the Ursidreans,” Aquilla growled.
“Then make peace with us,” Chris told him. “We’re neutral.”
“You’re Lycaon,” he shot back. “And that one is Felsite, and those three belong to the Ursidreans. You might be a different species, but you belong to your factions, just like Penelope Ann belongs to the Avitras. You can’t change that, and you can’t erase the past because you don’t have enough men to guard your border.”
“You don’t have enough men to guard your border, either.” Anna turned to Penelope Ann. “Help us, Penelope Ann. Don’t let these hostilities go on any longer.”
Penelope Ann shifted from one foot to the other, but, Piwaka spoke up before she could respond. “We should listen to them. We have nothing to lose and plenty to gain.”
Aquilla pursed his lips. “Keep silent.”
“These women aren’t our enemies,” Piwaka replied. “What harm can it do to listen to them?”
Aquilla glared at his Captain. “How dare you undermine me at a time like this!”
“I’m not undermining you. I’m helping you.” Piwaka motioned to Penelope Ann. “Ask her. She’ll tell you the same thing.”
Aquilla rounded on Penelope Ann. “Tell me you’re not taking their side in this.”
Penelope Ann glanced one way and then the other. “Listen to them. They’re right. We can’t afford these quarrels any longer. Let’s make peace and prosper.”
“You don’t have to agree with them or join their peace agreement, but at least listen,” Piwaka urged. “They might have some valuable concessions to offer.”
Aquilla spun away. “Talk all you want. I won’t agree to anything.”
Piwaka raised his hand to the Avitras Guards. “We’ll camp on this rock, just to make sure the enemy troops don’t return. If you want to negotiate with us, then fall back with your troops. We will meet on neutral ground to discuss this further.”
The Avitras line broke up. Aria turned her back on them and waved her friends back. “Come on. We’ve won this round—for now, anyway.”
“I told you Piwaka would help us,” Anna murmured.
Aimee glanced back over her shoulder and spotted the big Captain watching them retreat. “He succeeded in driving us back. He made us all cower in fright.”
“We’re not cowering in fright,” Chris told her. “They agreed to stay and negotiate with us. That’s a step in the right direction.”
“And we’ve got Penelope Ann working for us on the other side, too,” Carmen pointed out. “We’re halfway there.”
Chapter 5
Aimee crouched in the angle of a tree branch. Marissa, Carmen, and Aria sat with Penelope Ann in a sunny patch of grass on the bank of a stream below her. What were they talking about?
Smoke rose from the fires of the Felsite camp on the plain to the east. No smoke came from the Ursidrean camp. They used some strange technology to cook their food and generate heat to keep themselves warm at night. Emily and Anna explained it all to her, but their explanations went right over Aimee’s head. The Ursidrean technology surpassed anything Aimee ever saw on Earth.
No smoke came from the Avitras on the big rock, either. Anna said the Avitras never ate cooked food, and their feathers kept them warm when temperatures dropped. Aimee shuddered at the thought of them. If Aquilla had his way, all their efforts and hopes would be dashed, and they would go home with nothing, if they were lucky. Their peace negotiations could still end in bloodshed.
In the clearing by the stream, Aria waved her hand, and Penelope Ann nodded. At least they were talking. Those four came to Angondra together, and they’d barely seen each other since. Now, Aria and Carmen had children from their Alpha mates, and Marissa was pregnant. Did they ever dream of going back to Earth? Did they miss their families and their pasts?
Aimee tightened her jacket around her shoulders. The sun inched lower over the Divide toward night, and it would be another cold one. None of the men had negotiated with each other. Only the women came together, and who knew how successful that would be? Aimee would have to ask Marissa what they talked about. Sitting in a tree watching those women in conversation wasn’t accomplishing anything. Aimee shimmied down the tree and set her feet on solid ground.
“What are you doing, spying on them?” The voice made her jump out of her skin. She spun around and found herself face to face with Piwaka.
Aimee covered her heart with her hand. “You scared me.”
He arched his eyebrows. “You didn’t answer my question. What were you doing, spying on those women? They’re supposed to be meeting alone.”
“Marissa asked me to make sure no one interrupted their conversation.” Aimee narrowed her eyes at him. “She was worried someone would take advantage of the situation and maybe try to kidnap one of them the way Aquilla kidnapped Menlo. So what are you doing out here, lurking around?”
> “I’m monitoring the well-being of my Alpha’s mate,” he shot back. “What else would I be doing?”
Aimee snorted. “That’s a laugh.”
He shrugged. “I have as much right to take a walk through the woods as you do.”
“I’m their friend,” she pointed out. “You’re Captain of the Guard of....”
“Of what?” he interrupted. “Of the enemy army? Is that what you were about to say?”
“Of course not,” she snapped. “But you’re the Captain of the Guard of the one faction opposed to this peace negotiation. How do I know you didn’t come here to kidnap me or kill me, just to sabotage the negotiation?”
His eyes gave her no rest. She couldn’t hide anything from him. “I don’t have to kidnap you or kill you or anybody else to sabotage this negotiation. This negotiation is dead in the water without me. If I don’t want it to happen, I just have to sit back and let it fail. I’m the only person who can save it.”
She stared at him. “What about Penelope Ann? She can convince Aquilla to go along with it.”
Piwaka shook his head. “He loves her, but he wouldn’t take her advice on a political matter like this. He’s already hostile enough to the whole notion of peace, I would only have to drop a few choice words in his ear and we would be at war with....well, with the Ursidreans for certain, possibly the Felsite, too, and the Lycaon would get dragged into it for good measure.”
“If that’s true,” Aimee asked, “why are you still here? Why don’t you let it fail? Why keep it going?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked. “I’m here because I want the negotiation to succeed. I want the factions to be at peace, once and for all.”
She blinked. “You do?”
He gazed into the distance. “I’ve seen war. I’ve seen a lot of war. I’ve seen a lot more of war than Aquilla, or anyone else on the Guard, for that matter. I’m finished with war. I’ll do anything to stop it.”
“Then why didn’t you say so when the Avitras confronted us up on the mountain?” she asked. “Why didn’t you tell Aquilla then that you supported us?”
Rohn (Dragons of Kratak Book 1) Page 62
