by R. R. Banks
I watched as everyone dissipated to follow Zuri's instructions. Ty held my hand for a few lingering seconds and then gave it a squeeze.
"I'm going to help them find the holes," he said.
"No, we need you in the meeting hall."
"Why?"
"You said you wanted to fight. This is your chance."
We met eyes and without saying anything else, we started running toward the meeting hall. Soon I was stumbling over my own feet trying to keep up with him, and he swept me up to put me on his back so that he could carry me the rest of the way. I didn't know if I was ever going to get used to being carried around like a rag doll, but part of me loved feeling so small and having him take control like that.
By the time we got to the meeting hall, the main room was loud with the voices of all of the warriors of the clan except for those who were back in the woods finding all of the holes that led down into the forest chamber. Pyra hadn't bothered to go the stage on the other side of the room. Instead, he was standing in the middle of one of the long tables, staring down at the warriors.
"Listen to her!" he shouted, "All of you be quiet and listen to her!"
Finally the warriors quieted down and started to settle onto the benches. I saw Leia sitting at one of the tables, her illustration of the underground forest in front of her. She was adding labels to it, pointing out what we had realized each of the elements was.
"Ty?" Pyra said when he noticed him standing there beside me.
"I want to fight," Ty said.
"You aren't a warrior, Ty. You don't have to do this."
"I want to. I think that I could make a difference."
"Show him," I said to Ty.
"Show me what?" Pyra asked.
"I'm not sure," Ty said to me.
"This is your chance, Ty. You were born to do this. You have a gift unlike anyone else on this planet and you owe it to your father to embrace it."
"What is she talking about, Ty?" Pyra asked.
I saw Ty turn back to the warrior and then look over his shoulder. His eyes narrowed as I had seen them do earlier. An instant later a massive sword fell from the hooks holding it on the stone wall and shot forward, narrowly missing hitting Pyra. Ty snatched it out of the air and lowered it slowly to his side. The warrior's erupted in shouts and Pyra struggled to get control of them again.
Before he could respond, the doors to the meeting room swung open and I heard the scuffle of people entering. I turned around and felt my heart constrict painfully.
Chapter Fourteen
Ty turned toward the doors to the meeting hall and saw two warriors dragging a thrashing woman between them. Zuri came up behind them and he saw blood trickling down her chest from a large gash across the front of her shoulder. Ero walked beside her, his jaw twitching and his eyes wild with fury. The woman gripped between the warriors was small and plain. She wasn't pretty or interesting-looking like the human women who had come to call his planet home, and suddenly it struck him… she was unnoticeable.
Samira looked stricken beside him like she knew who the woman was.
"Who is that?" Ty asked.
"She was the flight attendant on our voyage from Earth. She mans all of the trips on the university shuttle."
"So she would have been the attendant when Eden, Eliana, and Leia came here, too?"
Samira nodded.
"This is who had been helping Ullie and the Klimnu," Zuri said with acid in her voice.
Pyra glared down at the woman, who stared definitely back at him.
"I don't understand," he said, "Who is this woman?"
"She has been posing as a flight attendant on all of the shuttles from Earth. She was getting information from us and bringing it back to Ullie and the Klimnu. That's how they knew that Leia was coming and were able to intercept the flight and kidnap her. The transporter in the middle of the tunnel wasn't to get her from the cliffs to the underground chamber. It was to get her from the ship to the tunnel. That's why she disappeared into her quarters as soon as the ship landed, and why she told us that she never got off in between voyages. She has a transporter in her quarters that brought her directly into the tunnel so that she was never seen moving in or out. That meant she could meet Ullie at the mouth of the tunnel and collect materials to bring to the Klimnu and go through the transporter again to the get to the chamber, or she could go directly to the chamber."
"Why would you help them?" Leia shouted at her, "How could you help such vile creatures?"
The flight attendant scoffed.
"You consider the Klimnu the vile creatures? My grandmother came here when she was young. She was one of the first human visitors to ever step foot on this planet. I bet if you asked the king and queen, though, they wouldn't even admit that she was ever here."
"Your grandmother?" Zuri spat, stepping around to look at the attendant, "You told me that she said humans should never leave Earth and that you should always keep to your own kind; that she didn't even know what you were doing for a living."
"She doesn't know what I do, and she does believe that humans should keep to their own kind. That belief comes from her brief time here. When I was younger she told me stories about how vicious and violent the Denynso men were. She told me that they were all cruel and insatiable. They would just as soon slit your throat as they would bed you. She fell in love with one of the warriors who was here at the time, but as soon as he was finished with her, he had the king and queen rescind her permissions to be here and sent her back. She has never recovered and we all watched her suffer and were limited for our entire lives because of it."
"You can't blame our entire species on the fact that your grandmother fell in love with a warrior who wasn't her mate. There are very clear warnings before any humans come to Uoria," Pyra told her, "There have been since the very first visitor. One of the reasons we limit how long humans can stay here, especially human women, is because of situations like that. We are a warrior race. It is who we are. Your grandmother knew that before she ever stepped foot here, and if she let a warrior bed her knowing that he wasn't her mate, she can only hold herself responsible."
"Bring her back to the shuttle and lock her in the pod. Make it very clear that she is never to come near this planet again and that if she does, we cannot be held responsible for our actions."
The warriors turned and dragged the woman out of the meeting hall. As soon as they were gone, Samira ran from Ty's side over to Zuri.
"Are you alright?" she asked, touching the gash on her chest.
"You left Pyra's knife in the tunnel," she said, "Guess who found it?"
"Oh, god. I am so sorry, Zuri."
"It's alright. The warriors were a little resistant to taking her into custody until they saw her swinging at me with it. A little blood is worth getting her off of the planet and away from us."
"We need to get you to Ciyrs."
"What are we going to do about the Klimnu?"
Everyone turned to look at Pyra. His shoulders were square and his Mohawk seemed to have gotten taller and sharper. Ty knew his body was preparing for war.
Chapter Fifteen
"I'm not staying here, Ty," I said, following Ty to the door to the meeting hall.
"Yes, you are. You and the other women are going to stay here where you'll be safe while we go take care of the Klimnu."
"If it wasn't for us you would have no idea how they were getting into the compound."
"And we appreciate that, Samira, but the Klimnu are vicious, horrible creatures. I am not letting my mate be in harm's way. I'll be back soon enough and we'll go home, together, and start our life."
I loved the way that sounded, but I hated that after everything we did to help them, the warriors were just going to leave us women behind so that we could sit around and be worried about them, feeling useless.
"Ty," I started to protest again, but he shook his head.
"No, Samira. You aren't coming with me. You have to stay here and look after Zuri an
d Eden. We know what we're doing."
He kissed me a final time and joined the warriors standing at the door. They all looked so powerful standing there. Their bodies had changed with the coming war, giving off even more of the intense, animalistic impression that already made them so intimidating. Pyra opened the door and they marched out, slamming the door behind them. The meeting hall fell silent. All of the other women were sitting along one of the benches, but I couldn't sit. I paced around in front of them for a few minutes, tormented by the thought of Ty and the other men marching off into such incredible danger and us just sitting here.
I knew that they had planned out their attack carefully. It was designed perfectly, but I was still terrified for them. It was not enough for me to sit and wait and hope that what they had come up with would actually work. Finally I stalked across the room to one of the wall sconces that held torches and pulled one down.
"What are you doing?" Zuri asked, standing up.
She had a bandage covering the wound on her chest, the sweet smell of the healing potion Ciyrs had finally perfected seeping through it toward me.
"I can't just sit here. That's my mate out there, and my new home. We started this for them, and I'm not going to let them finish it alone."
I started toward the door and heard footsteps coming after me.
"I'm coming with you."
I turned around and saw Eliana close behind me. I knew of the incredible power that she shared with her mate and that it could be an intense force against the Klimnu. I nodded and looked back at the other women.
"Zuri and Eden, neither of you can come in your conditions. Leia, I'm trusting you to take care of them and make sure that the potion is ready for when the warriors come back. Eden can help you apply it. Stay connected with your mates as much as possible, but don't let them know you're worried. You don't want to distract them. If anything happens, Eliana will connect with Eden."
Eliana grabbed another torch and we rushed out of the meeting hall in the direction of the cliffs. She knew the land better than I did and I let her lead. The darkness had built around the planet and the feeling of impending battle hung heavy over the compound. I ducked my head and continued to run. The fear dissipated as we reached the cliff. I knew that I had faced my own share of battles before and I had come out alive even though then I had little to live for. Now I had everything to live for and I was either going to save it, or die trying.
We climbed the cliff carefully and headed through the chamber into the tunnel. Now that we knew that the transporter was somewhere in the middle, we stayed as close to each other as possible. We didn't want to risk one of us transporting and the other one not. The steepness of the tunnel and the haste in my motivation made my steps fast and for a moment I felt like I was falling. I regained my control and we pushed our way through the tight passage, me guiding her since she had not been with us during the first trip down to the chamber.
"When you start to feel moving air," I whispered to her, "blow out your torch. We don’t want to call attention to ourselves."
"Are you sure that the way they planned it out is going to work?" she asked.
"I have to be," I said.
A few more steps and I felt the movement of air against my cheek. We simultaneously blew out our torches, reaching down to hold hands so that we could stay together in the darkness.
"Be very careful where you step," I told her, "Remember that what looks like water is actually the sky. You don't want to fall into it. Stay on the branches."
We continued forward and suddenly saw flickers of light ahead of us. I pressed myself to the wall of the tunnel and glanced around the corner at the underground forest. Just as Pyra had expected, the entire chamber crawled with slimy, skeletal creatures. Some climbed on the trees, others dangled from the vines, and still others lounged between the branches that looked like roots traversing the ground. One stood on a particularly large branch, releasing small illuminated balls onto the ground so that they floated through the space and filled it with a soft light.
"How much longer?" Eliana whispered.
I brought a finger to my lips to quiet her. There was a slight cracking sound and a few of the Klimnu looked up toward the ceiling. There was another slight sound, and then another. Suddenly the entire space filled with loud, soul-shaking screams as the Denynso warriors dropped down through the holes they had found and enlarged earlier in the day.
The Klimnu scrambled, caught completely off guard by the warriors using their own tactic against them. Following Pyra's instructions, they clung to the trees, wrapping their muscled arms through the hanging vines to keep them from falling into the reflection of the sky. None of us knew what would happen if someone was to fall. It seemed that it would be like shooting directly up into the sky, and none of the warriors wanted to test the theory.
Chaos ensued quickly. I watched the Klimu thrash at the warriors, biting and clawing at them, and crawling up onto each other so that they could better access the men staying close to the trees. I watched as three of the warriors wrapped both arms in the vines and used their powerful upper bodies to pull themselves up so that they were suspended between two trees, enabling them to kick at the Klimnu that approached. The hard hits sent the creatures flying backwards. One skidded across the branches and slipped into the sky, disappearing completely. I heard nothing and there was a moment of intense realization among to warriors.
Suddenly Eliana surged forward. I saw her run toward a Klimnu climbing up the side of a tree toward Pyra and grab it by its neck. The disgusting creature's scream reverberated through the space and I nearly gagged on the scent of burning flesh and ash. In only a few seconds, the Klimnu she held disintegrated into a pile of ash. Inspired by her courage, I left my place in the tunnel and started forward. Before I could even step off of the small section of land in front of the tunnel and onto one of the branches, though, one of the Klimnu dropped down in front of me.
His eyes rolled as he licked his lips and clicked his long claws together. I saw his fangs dripping with saliva and felt my stomach flip. He reached for me, and I let out a scream. I knew that Ty would recognize it immediately.
"Samira!" I heard him yell.
"Ty," I screamed back, "Get me."
I felt the tug in my belly and let go of my control of my body. My feet left the ground and as I rose above the creature who had been threatening me, I planted a kick in the middle of his face, tossing him back into the sky. I continued to kick as I flew toward Ty, managing to knock a few more of the creatures out of their paths toward the warriors. When I reached Ty, he pulled me against him and instructed me to hold onto one of the hanging vines. He pointed out a branch that started just a couple of feet beneath us.
"Jump onto that branch. Keep holding onto the vine for stability, and just swing onto it. Stay there."
I did as he asked, closing my eyes as I held tightly to the vine and jumped. I hit the branch and immediately tangled a vine around my legs to hold me more securely in place. The smell of burning flesh had gotten nearly overwhelming and all around me I could hear the screams of the Klimnu and the men as they clashed. Ty used his mind to lift the creatures and toss them out of the way, Ero ran with such incredible speed that he was able to run from branch to branch across the sky without sinking, Pyra literally snapped and tore the creatures to pieces with his bare hands.
"Jem, no!"
Ty's sudden, tormented scream brought a lull to the battle. I looked around and realized that there were only a few Klimnu left. A warrior stood far out on one of the branches, locked in a struggle with one of the larger of the creatures. Two more had abandoned their previous goals and were now creeping toward the warrior, determined to take a Denynso life. Jem turned to land a solid punch in the middle of one of the creature's faces and knock him off balance. He started to fall, and then grabbed onto Jem's shirt to regain his balance. I looked up and could see Ty struggling to pick him up.
Jem rose a few feet off of the branch, but t
he Klimnu tugged at him. Pyra rushed down the tree toward them, but Jem held up a hand.
"Stop, Pyra. Don't come out here. You're what they want. Remember, they are trying to get to Criea. If they kill our leader, they weaken our defenses and they can get to the king. There's only one way to stop them, and that is to eliminate them."
Jem thrashed for a few moments, nearly working his way back down to the branch. The creatures tugged him.
"Let me pick you up!" Ty screamed.
"No! Put me down. I'll be fine. These are the last of their kind here and there is something about me that they don't know."
One of the creatures scoffed and reached out a hand to claw Jem's face.
"And what is that?" he asked mockingly.
Jem smiled up at all of the warriors.
"I've always wanted to fly."
The warrior wrapped his arms around the three Klimnu and launched himself backwards off of the branch, disappearing into the darkness of the sky. Eliana screamed and I heard Ty cry out the warrior's name. He disentangled himself from the vine and started down the tree toward where Jem had fallen. I reached out and grabbed him by his shirt.
"Stop, Ty."
"I let him die! He was right there."
"Stop. He did what he wanted to do. It's alright. He's among the stars now."
Chapter Sixteen
Ty leaned down and pulled Samira out of the hole in the forest floor. Around them the rest of the warriors were emerging from the moss and taking deep, long breaths of the night air. It was the first night in as long as any of them could remember where no one had to be afraid.
"If that sky was a reflection," he asked, looking up into the sky above them, "That means it was just as much an illusion as the Klimnu were able to make themselves."
"Yes."
"Then where is Jem? If that wasn't the real sky, where did he go?"
Samira wrapped an arm around Ty's waist and hugged him close, knowing that it was him that needed her strength now.
