"Lynx, Bannack, go after the Covra," Pyra commanded, "Ero, Gyyx, Ciyrs, help me."
The warriors split off to follow their orders without question. Out of the corner of his eye Lynx could see Pyra pull off his shirt and the other men follow suit. They tore the garments into long strips and wound them around their hands, tightening the fabric so that it was taut between their grip. Pyra surged forward toward Ty, slamming his shoulder into his belly to flatten him onto the ground. The sudden movement took the infected warrior off guard, causing him to pause for a moment as he tried to catch his breath and get his bearings.
Pyra took advantage of this momentary pause to flip Ty over onto his stomach and use the strips of fabric from his shirt to bind Ty's wrists together. Ero and Gyyx copied his movements on Vax, looping the fabric around his wrists to bind them together and then pulling them back as Pyra did with Ty to attach them to his ankles.
As they did this, Lynx and Bannack advanced toward the Covra. For the first few steps, the creatures seemed to be retreating, then they paused in the still, angry silence of the night air and started rushing toward the two warriors, their hissing sound seeming to rattle through their bodies as they came toward them with their gruesome legs creating deep rivets in the ground and gouges in the side of the building.
Lynx pulled back his blade and brought it over his head with all of the force that he could gather. The Covra in front of him tried to move out of his way, but was blocked by the one standing beside him. The tip of Lynx's blade dug deeply into the creature's eye and he watched it split before the Covra pulled away from him, stumbled back, and dissolved into the ground just as the ones in his vision had. Beside him, Bannack mimicked his action, destroying the Covra in front of him. The final one started scrambling up the wall of the building, and Lynx jumped onto a barrel positioned beside one of the windows and leapt up so that he crossed the path of the Covra, planting a kick in the middle of its body before it could disappear onto the roof. Its body tumbled to the ground beside Bannack, who immediately turned and drove his blade down into the bulbous, gleaming eye.
Chapter Nine
"Bannack, you need to slow down."
Loralia held the compact as steady as she could as she rushed across the compound, struggling to decipher the words that Bannack was yelling at her through the glass.
"We figured out that they can only be killed through their eyes," he repeated.
"Their eyes?"
"Yes. Lynx thought that all along, but we spent all night…never mind. I'll explain it all later."
"Are the rest of the men alright?"
"Ciyrs is healing Ty and Vax right now. I think that he got to them in time and that they will be fine. Right now we need to figure out how to get rid of the rest of the Covra. We destroyed those three, but there have to be more. We can't risk them coming out and infecting more of us. If one of them got Ciyrs, there would be nothing that anyone could do."
"Do you know how to lure them to you?" Loralia asked.
"No. They just show up. Do you remember anything else that your grandfather used to say about the Covra? Anything about when they would come or how you could get them to come out?"
Loralia scoured her mind, trying to recall everything that her grandfather had said, every story that he had told about the creatures and how enemies defeated them. The ground pounded beneath her feet as she ran toward the forest.
"Silence," she said, suddenly remembering one of the stories as she dropped down onto the ground and moved aside a section of moss to reveal the hole leading down into her mirror realm.
"Silence?" Bannack asked.
"Yes. One of the stories that my grandfather used to tell was about how the greatest enemies of the Covra had a power that would weaken the creatures and was the only thing that could reverse their greatest defense, and that silence was their comfort and their joy."
"What was the greatest defense?"
"He never said."
Bannack didn't respond and Loralia dropped down through the hole into the home that she had had her entire life before she met Bannack and agreed to go above ground to be his mate.
"Locking them," Bannack said a moment later, sounding as if he was speaking more to himself than to her.
"Locking?" she asked.
Loralia listened while Bannack told him about the warriors visiting the prison that they had thought belonged to the Klimnu but they discovered actually belonged to the Covra, and how they found out about the kingdom that the Covra had locked. He detailed the Light Ones and how they appeared to be frozen in place in the same breath that they had been drawing when the Covra attacked them. As she listened, Loralia tried to understand what he was telling her, and what she might be able to do to help him. She had gone to the mirror realm to surround herself in what was familiar, hoping that it would help her to think clearly. She could feel that her mate was frightened and upset, and she wanted to do anything that she could to help him.
She moved deeper into the caverns, exploring the chambers and venturing into areas that she hadn't visited in quite some time. Suddenly she saw something that made her heart pound faster and a smile come to her lips for the first time since the day that Bannack left.
"Do you remember what I told you about the compact?" she asked, looking into the mirror at him.
Bannack nodded.
"Whatever reflects in your mirror, reflects in mine."
"Yes. And do you remember what happens when something reflects in my bottom mirror from the top?"
"It becomes real."
Loralia nodded and looked back across the cavern.
Bannack crouched down behind the barrel he had pulled into the middle of the street and glanced over at Lynx who sat beside him. The others had remained in the buildings on either side of the street, poised beside the windows and doors to watch what was happening, but staying out of sight.
"Are you sure that this is going to work?" Lynx whispered.
"It has to," Bannack answered. "In order for it to, though, you have to believe that it will. Loralia can only make this happen if you completely believe that it is going to work the way that she intends it to. If you don't, it won't exist, do you understand?" Lynx nodded and Bannack nodded back at him, "Good. Now we have to be completely silent."
The two warriors fell silent and Bannack glanced down at the compact in his hand. Loralia's face gazed up at him from the glass, her beautiful lavender eyes calm and focused. Nervousness flooded through Bannack, but he knew that he had to steady himself so that he could do his part of Loralia's plan properly. After several minutes of waiting, he heard the rustling sound that told him the Covra were approaching. The sound seemed louder and deeper than it had before and Bannack knew that meant there were more of the creatures this time as if they had sent more to seek revenge on those who had destroyed three of their number just hours before.
"They're coming," Bannack mouthed to Loralia, not making a sound.
Loralia nodded. Bannack lifted up slightly so that he could look over the barrel and watch the Covra approaching.
"Patient," Loralia mouthed to him.
Bannack watched until they were close enough that they would be able to see him clearly and then stood, pulling Lynx up with him so that they were standing in the middle of the street, open to the swarm of creatures approaching. He could feel Lynx tense beside him, but Bannack stood steady. Lynx adjusted his grip on the blade beside him. It was meant as both a ruse and a backup plan just in case Loralia's idea fell through. They waited for a few more tense seconds, the time seeming to drag past as they allowed the creatures to get dangerously closer. Bannack's heart pounded in his chest and his head felt like it was swimming. If this didn't work, the entirety of the group could be killed, many by each other's hands.
In an instant, the plan mobilized around him. The Covra climbing along the outside walls of the buildings got close to the windows and doors, and the warriors inside started to shout. As they yelled, the creatures paused and start
ed to retreat from the sound. They started moving backwards back down the street, but several of the warriors streamed out of the building and made a line across the street, blocking them with a wall of sound. The creatures turned and started scurrying more quickly toward Bannack and Lynx, unable to go anywhere else.
"Are you ready?" Bannack asked, looking down at Loralia.
"Just hold your compact so that the bottom mirror is straight upright and the top mirror is tilted toward it. Go!"
Bannack turned the compact in his hand and held it as Loralia instructed. There was a moment when nothing happened and he felt his stomach turn, but he closed his eyes and forced himself to believe with every bit of his existence that she would create exactly what she intended to. His eyes still closed, Bannack suddenly heard the hissing, screeching sound of the Covra dying. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a massive slab of brown and grey rock.
After several long seconds the screaming stopped and a chilling quiet settled over the street. Finally it broke with the sound of Loralia laughing.
"We might not be able to communicate with our thoughts, my love, but how many of the other warriors can do that?"
Bannack could hear the other warriors cheering and shouting, but it took a few moments before he was able to get his thoughts together enough to walk around the stone slab toward the cheering. When he did he saw the green blood of the Covra soaking into the dirt of the road, dripping from the rock spikes protruding from the front of the slab.
"What is that?" he asked.
"The floor of one of the caverns," Loralia told him, "I used to play on them when I was younger. I remembered how sharp they were."
"You are incredible."
"No, darling, you are."
"What, now? Is this thing just going to stay here?"
"If you think that it is part of settlement now, then it is. If not, when you close the compact, it will disappear."
"Then it will stay, forever a reminder of what destroyed the Covra."
Suddenly Loralia's eyes grew dark.
"This isn't the end, Bannack," she said solemnly.
The words hit him and the sound of the celebrating warriors seemed to fade.
"What do you mean?"
"I can still feel them. They're angry, Bannack. There's more to come. You need to save the Light Ones or very soon they will be lost forever."
(To be continued in Part V…)
Book 5 – The Alien’s Guest
Chapter One
Lynx dropped his bag back to the floor of the bedroom and looked around. It looked different now bathed in the first faint streaks of early morning light. He could see the stains of the Covra blood on the walls and the floor, and a piece of one of their legs sat next to the bed as a grisly reminder of the battle that had happened there the day before. The air was still heavy with the smell of the healing ointments that Ciyrs had used to seal up his wounds after the healer had drawn all of the venom out of his body, and just that scent brought a shiver down Lynx's spine. He didn't want to think about what he had gone through with the Covra or in the aftermath. All he wanted to do was climb back into bed beside Rain's locked, sleeping figure and rest.
His body still weak from the healing process and even more tired now that the adrenaline from the battle in the middle of the street had seeped out of him, the warrior removed his shirt, kicked off his boots, and very carefully climbed into the bed so that he could resume his place close to the wall. Rain was still locked, unmoving and unchanged from the first moment he saw her, but he found such great comfort in being near her. His body surged with aggressive, all-consuming desire that confirmed to him yet again that this beautiful woman was intended to be his mate. Then his mind filled with anger that he had to look at her in this locked state without any idea of how he could remove her from this frozen state that the Covra had put her in so many years ago.
Wanting at least a moment of seeing her breathing, Lynx drew himself closer to her and rested his hand on Rain's stomach. He felt the intense, pulling feeling through his body that he had become accustomed to after spending the night going through the town and touching each of the locked people so that he could see their last moments before they were locked. It had been exhausting, but it had enabled him to determine the Covra's weakness and, with the help of Bannack's truly astonishing mate, create a plan that would eliminate them. At least, that is what he thought he was doing. Once they were gone, however, Loralia had confided that she knew the battle with those terrifying creatures was far from over. There was more to come.
Lynx couldn't think about that now. He was lost in the moments of Rain's life just before the Covra crawled out from under her bed and locked her in her sleeping state. They knew now that the Covra had done this because they were weakened and knew that they would be unable to defeat the Light Ones, the inhabitants of this settlement. Instead of continuing to fight or surrendering, they chose to lock the Light Ones in place just as they were in the moment they were attacked. What Lynx didn't understand was why the Covra had chosen just to lock them in place and not to kill them. Once frozen, they were completely vulnerable to anything that the Covra wanted to do to them. No matter how weak the creatures were, they could have found a way to destroy humans that were unable to move in any way. There had to be a reason that they had kept the Light Ones alive other than just the fact that they held a tremendous grudge and enjoyed coming back to explore the settlement and cast their gleaming, vulnerable eyes on the people that they were holding in indefinite suspension.
When the vision of Rain's final moment was over, he settled down beside her and stared into her pale, peaceful face until his eyes couldn't stay open any longer and he fell into a deep sleep where he hoped he would meet her and be able to hold and touch her as he had wanted to since the moment he first saw her.
What felt like only moments later, Lynx heard the door to the bedroom open and he sat up sharply, ready to throw himself back into battle, but it was only Pyra standing at the entrance to the door staring at him.
"The men are awake," he said, then glanced toward Lynx's lap, "It looks like you are, too."
Lynx looked down and saw the blanket tented up, balanced on the raging erection he had been sporting nearly continuously since the first time he laid eyes on Rain. He took a pillow from behind him and slammed it onto his lap.
"It's her," he said, tilting his head toward Rain, "I can't help it."
"I know," Pyra said, the hint of a smile coming through his stern exterior, "Trust me. I remember what it was like when I first got around Eden. That was miserable. I was hard all the time, no matter what I did, and I was so pissed off at everything that I felt like I could have killed whatever got in my way. She was not the biggest fan of me when she first met me, either, which didn't make the whole situation any easier. At least she can't yell at you."
He said it playfully, but as soon as the words came out of Pyra's mouth, Lynx felt anger roll over him. Pyra's expression dropped as he obviously saw the change come over Lynx, and he held up a hand as if to show that he meant no harm by the comment.
"You're right," Lynx said, "She can't."
"I'm sorry," Pyra said, "I didn't mean…"
"Let me get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs."
Pyra closed his mouth and nodded before turning and leaving the room, closing the door behind him. Lynx was smaller and less experienced than Pyra, but the younger warrior could tell that his leader was not willing to put him to the test. A Denynso warrior who had found his mate but had not yet completed the bond was an unpredictable and volatile creature, and adding the tension of being away from their compound, the battle, and the seemingly hopeless locked state of the Light Ones was only working to push Lynx toward an edge that could have disastrous results.
Once Pyra left, Lynx looked down at Rain. She was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen, with coppery hair that shimmered in the sunlight and lashes so long they curled on her pale cheeks. Her full lips held the
tiniest hint of a smile, that touch of expression that made someone looking at it wonder if he was actually seeing a smile or if he was just imagining it because the rest of her face was so peaceful and lovely. It was a smile that Lynx had seen on sleeping faces before, but hers was so entrancing he couldn't seem to take his eyes away from it. He wished that he could see what she had been dreaming in that second that the Covra locked her; that he could know what had given her such a sense of peace and contentment in those last moments.
Lynx suddenly heard voices drifting up the stairs from the floor below and realized that all of the warriors must have come to meet at the house after Ty and Vax woke from their healing. He knew he couldn’t stay in bed and continue to stare at Rain, as much as that was exactly what he wanted to do. He had to go downstairs and be a part of the confusion, the questions, and the chaos that had ensued since the first Covra had arrived. Usually the Denynso were incredibly organized, strategic warriors, but this had thrown them completely out of control. Not only were they far away from the compound that was the only home that any of them had ever known, but they were up against an enemy that they didn't understand and fighting to save a people who they didn't even know if they could save. They had managed to come together to lure the Covra and force them into the spiked wall that Bannack created with Loralia's help, but now they were at a loss. They didn't know where they were supposed to go from there, and they would need every single one of them to figure it out.
Moving carefully to prevent jostling Rain, Lynx climbed out of bed and dressed. He longed for a hot bath, but he knew that was going to have to wait. For now he would have to settle for running Rain's brush through his tangled white hair and hoping that Ty had gotten enough of his strength back to make sure that there was breakfast for them to eat while they were talking.
Saved by a Dragon (No Such Things as Dragons Book 1) Page 64
