by Mira Maxwell
I wrap myself in a ball, trying to keep the biting cold at bay along with my thoughts of Lodyn’s warm body. Sitting in the snow, it doesn’t take long before my entire body is shaking from the cold. To make matters worse, the rest of the beasts return to the group carrying dead animal carcasses in their hands. Relief floods through me as I realize they must plan on starting a fire or something warm to cook their food.
My hopes are dashed when they all start ripping into the animal carcasses completely raw. Gagging into my mouth, I divert my eyes as blood and animal innards start flying around their disgusting little circle. Even without looking, the smell of it is more than my stomach can handle. Leaning over, I retch into the snow.
As if they think it’s funny, one of the creatures tosses a bloodied animal limb in my direction, grunting the word, “Food.”
Realization sparks inside my cloudy, frozen mind as I say, “You speak English?” I lean closer, pulling myself up onto my knees while my arms are crossed protectively over my chest. “I’m freezing,” I say when no one answers my initial question. My teeth are chattering loudly enough to give away our location, if anyone were looking. “Please, can you start a fire?”
One of them throws down a bone cleared of meat while grunting in annoyance. “We will keep you alive, female. That is all you need to know.”
He turns away from me, an obvious sign that I’m to sit down and be quiet now. “But where are you taking me? What are you going to do with me?” I’d be ashamed of the way I’m begging if I wasn’t so desperate to know what would become of me. And I probably should be more scared of them than I am. I’m too fucking cold right now to even care.
The same one who spoke to me stands up and walks with purpose to where I’m crouching in the snow. Without hesitation he backhands me across the face and I go flying on my back into the snow.
“No more questions,” he says, haltingly, once he has already turned and walked back to the rest of them. I lay in the snow just until my head clears and then I make myself sit up in order to stay as dry as possible.
“Fucking creep,” I say under my breath. My heart stops for a split second when I swear he pauses before he sits back down, almost as if he heard me. But I said it so quietly, that’s impossible. When he sits back down, I finally let myself breathe again.
It doesn’t take them long to finish eating their bloody, raw carcasses and then I’m over another shoulder as they take off on what I’m hoping is the last leg of the journey. I mean, if we go much further I’ll never find my way out of wherever we end up.
Again I lose track of time as we travel further and further away from the ship. At this point I can’t feel my fingers or toes, my legs have almost gone numb and my face feels like it’s about to fall off. Finally, instead of hearing only the pounding of feet in the snow, I hear other sounds as well. Sounds that make me think we’ve arrived wherever we were headed.
The first thing I notice is that there is no fire. I’m not really given the opportunity to look around but from what I can see, these creatures live in the caves on the side of the mountain. In my mind I pictured a village with huts and a roaring fire in the center. No such luck.
I’m carried to the caves and thrown inside an empty one. Before I can do more than sit up he slides a huge contraption that looks like it’s made out of the bones of one of those wooly mammoth creatures in front of the entrance of the cave. A caveman’s jail cell. I’m being held in this cave by the massive rib cage of some animal.
Some of the other aliens walk over and congregate outside of the cave, looking in at me like a caged animal. And that’s exactly what I feel like. One thing I haven’t seen…females. Only these sickly-green-colored brutes staring at me like they want to fight over me for dinner.
One of the creatures says, “Human female?” And it makes me think that maybe they’ve never seen a human before.
I’m cowering as far away from the bars as I can, trying to get away from their prying eyes. Only one of them says anything in English. The rest of them are all speaking a different language. It sounds similar to the Attalan language that I studied briefly before coming on this mission, but I can’t make out anything that they’re saying.
Eventually most of them leave except for the one that can’t stop staring at me. He stands in front of the bars and I think it’s safe to assume he’s going to be my guard for the time being. When he finally turns around with his back to me I let myself relax into the wall of the cave.
It’s so strange to me that none of the aliens I have encountered on this planet so far have any need for additional heat to keep themselves warm. Even if their body temperatures run higher than a human’s, it would still make sense that they’d have another way to provide heat for when it gets really cold.
I’m staring at the back of the Salthu warrior standing guard. Somehow it’s less intimidating sizing up my enemy when we’re not making eye contact. They don’t wear much for clothes. Some wear simple leather pants, others more of a leather loincloth. I’m trying to figure out if these creatures are more similar to animals or aliens. They seem to be a strange combination of both.
My alien guard turns his body slightly allowing light from their planet’s moons to illuminate his body. I almost gasp out loud when I see a very familiar pattern etched into his skin. Forgetting all about my desire to blend into the walls, I crawl right up to the bars and grab ahold of them, trying to get a closer look.
It is the same pattern of the Attalan guard. I know it intimately from when I traced my fingertips over Lodyn’s skin while he held me in his arms. How is it possible that these detestable creatures have anything in common with the Attalan guard?
Fourteen
LODYN
This is the second time I’ve had to watch Margo being carried away from me, only this time I’m helpless to do anything about it. Suddenly, there’s something strange happening inside of me, something I’ve never experienced before. My heart is pounding so loudly it echoes through my ears. Adrenaline is building so quickly it feels like my body is expanding to accommodate it.
There’s a strange tingling sensation in my hands and when I look down there’s an aura floating around me, then through me. As quickly as my heart was beating a moment ago, it slows down. Time itself slows and I’m conscious of everything happening around me; from each individual snowflake that falls in front of my face to the flow of the wind carrying the sounds of battle to me.
I stand up from behind the snow barrier without feeling my body as I move. There’s a horde of Salthu coming toward me, battle axes drawn above them in the air, faces contorted into animalistic growls, eyes set to claim me as a victory in this death match.
I smile.
And then somehow, I release all of the energy inside of me. It starts in my hands and as I raise them in front of me, as if making an offering to the gods, pulses stream from them, throwing the warriors back that attack from in front of me. The waves continue to assault our enemy, pulsing through me, my body acting as a vessel for this strange untapped power.
This power surge continues for a few moments until I start to feel weak, like there’s nothing left inside of me. I drop to my knees, trying to pull anything that I have left inside of me in order to continue the fight. But as much as I was unable to control the pulses of power coming from my body, I can’t stop myself from falling over into the snow. For the first time in my life, it feels cold. So cold that I want to lift myself up, but I can’t. My eyelids drop like the ice blocks we use as drinking water and I’m pulled under into darkness.
“Is he dead?”
“Of course he’s not dead, he’s breathing isn’t he?”
Consciousness is slowly returning. Instead of blackness, there’s dull light seeping through my eyelids. Slowly, I try to move my body and open my eyes.
“He’s coming to!”
“Are you sure? I think he just twitched.”
Krenar? Tuliran? How is it possible? I force my eyes open and blink away
the haze surrounding me. When my eyes clear I’m looking up into the faces of my guard brothers.
“There he is, I knew you’d come around,” Kjallak says, slapping my face a few times to snap me out of my daze. Slowly, I pull myself up onto my elbows and breathe in the cold air, clearing my senses.
“Krenar, Tuliran? What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Mallyk sent us to check up on you guys. Veduco, Halvdan, and Dragos are here too. We came just in time to see the show,” Krenar says.
“What show?” It’s clear to me that I missed something while I was passed out in the snow. “What happened?”
“Look around you, brother,” Kjallak says, grabbing me under the arm and helping me to my feet.
I stand on unsteady legs, willing my strength to return quickly. The battlefield in front of me is quiet, littered with the bodies of the dead. I look around for Branyx, he’s walking through the bodies checking for any Salthu that might have survived.
“Shit,” I say, marveling at the destruction around us. Finally realizing why there is still an unsettled feeling inside of me, Margo’s beautiful face flashes into my mind. “Margo.” I whisper under my breath. “How long have I been unconscious?” I ask, turning to Kjallak, filled with a sudden urgency to take off running toward the forest. “I have to go after Margo…they took her.”
“You need to give yourself a minute to make sure you have your energy back. It was crazy, Lodyn, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“What was crazy?”
“You. You took out all of them,” Kjallak says, waving his arm in the direction of the battlefield. “There was a huge explosion and when I looked to see what was happening, you were standing down there…glowing. Then you turned into a huge Attalan weapon or something and decimated the Salthu. I saw it all from the cliff behind the ship.”
Kjallak looks amused and though I don’t share his excitement, I suppose for now, whatever happened probably saved all of our lives.
“I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know if it’s even possible to do it again, whatever it was. All I know is that I need to get some things and go after Margo. They took her and it won’t be long before they try to sell her. They’re going to want to get rid of her quickly. If that happens, it’ll be much harder for me to find her. I need to get to her now before she slips through my grasp.”
Panic starts to well up inside of me but I need to keep it to myself. Margo is our responsibility. Our job is to protect the humans while they are here on our planet. All of the men will understand this urgency to get her back. They don’t need to know that she’s actually my fated mate. They won’t understand how this connection changes things for us. How it makes me question my purpose and if I’ll be able to eventually let her go.
“We will go with you,” Kjallak says.
“No, you need to stay here and guard the ship. Whatever happens we can’t allow the ship to be taken or they’ll never make it back to Earth. I’ll get Margo back and you make sure the ship is safe. Anything less will be the ultimate failure.”
Kjallak nods and I head inside the ship, set to gather my things and go after her. I can’t afford to waste anymore time. I have to force myself not to think about all of the things that could happen to her. They’ll keep her alive, there’s no reason to kill a human female. They collect an insanely high price on the black market because they are so rare on Attala. I only know this because of the rumors that I’ve heard throughout the guard of one of the leaders, years ago, defecting because he fell in love with a human female. I always figured the story was false, until I fell in love with my own human. Now the story doesn’t seem so outlandish.
The others are gathered outside the ship when I walk down the ramp, ready to head off on my journey. I walk over to my brothers that have most recently come back to help defend the ship and human.
“Thank you for coming to help us,” I say, nodding at each of them and then showing my respect by grasping the back of their necks. They return the gesture and then I walk off, through the snow-covered field, over the dead bodies of my enemies.
I walk to the edge of the woods and then slow my stride in order to find the tracks of the Salthu that took her. The snow has started to fall, but it’s a slow, lazy sort. As long as the snow doesn’t pick up too much I will be able to follow the tracks that will lead me to Margo.
The problem with the Salthu is that they don’t inhabit just one location. They have several groups living scattered throughout the vast wilderness. They scavenge, hunt, and kill in order to take what they need to survive. The wall was erected long ago to protect the growing city from these savage attacks. The guard was given the job of protecting the wall. And guarding the wall means protecting the citizens living inside the wall in the city.
Margo has a job to do and her job involves going back to her planet. So even if I could eventually convince her to stay with me, we’d be forced to live outside the walls of the city, hidden in the wilderness where dangers lurk around every corner.
I push those thoughts from my mind and force myself to focus on finding her. It doesn’t take me long to find their tracks. They move in large packs and don’t make any attempt to hide. I don’t know if it’s cockiness or stupidity. Or maybe they don’t think I’ll come after what is mine.
I’m moving fast, setting a rhythm fueled by the worry inside of me that I’m not going to reach her in time. They traveled far while I was passed out in the snow. When I reach the clearing and see the animal bones littering the ground, it sinks in just how far ahead of me they are. This time when I take off after them, I push myself to move even faster. It’ll be dark soon and then I’ll have plenty of other things to contend with.
I arrive at the bridge of bones and am instantly overly aware of my surroundings. This bridge, constructed from the rib cage and spinal column of the Argali is the entrance to the Salthu’s caves. There’s no sign of life out here, which is troublesome because it’s usually guarded. Crouching low, I make my way across the bridge until I reach the edge of the cliff. From here I can look down into the Salthu’s camp. Finding foot holes, I ease down over the side and begin my decent.
As soon as my feet hit the snow at the bottom, I flatten myself against the cliff wall as a small pack of Salthu move along the path directly in front of me. I want to move quietly, in and out, without alerting anyone to my presence. Obviously they’ll realize something’s going on when Margo’s gone but I want to be far away by then.
Once the area is deserted I move with purpose toward the caves. I keep to the shadows, covering my tracks as I move like a ghost, a mere whisper on the wind. The caves are close but there are more and more guards in this area. Before I move any closer, I find a better vantage point where I can survey the area to see if I can figure out where they might be keeping Margo.
It strikes me how cold and desolate this place is. It’s not something I would have noticed before Margo. Now, the thought of her sitting alone in one of these dark, damp caves fuels the anger inside of me even more. Anger at myself that she was taken in the first place and anger at these prehistoric beasts for having no sense of pride and honor. For thinking they have the right to forcefully take whatever they want in order to sell it and make a profit. They’re dishonorable, this is something I have always known. But now it has become personal.
There are a series of caves that have caught my eye. They’re off on their own, away from all of the rest with huge bones propped in front of the entrance, a makeshift prison. Making my way to the caves, my instinct tells me what I’ve been dreading all along. I don’t feel Margo close, my body isn’t alight with awakening knowing she’s near me. When I look inside the cave through the bars, it’s dark and empty.
Margo’s already gone.
Fifteen
MARGO
THREE DAYS LATER
It has been days since I was taken. Three days to be exact. I spent a night and a day in that dreadfully cold cave prison before they threw me into thi
s cage and took me even further away from the ship. At least I can sit somewhat comfortably while they pull it through the snow like a huge sled. Definitely an upgrade to traveling over the shoulder of one of the brutes.
The cold is starting to get to me. I’m to the point where I’ve been cold so long that I don’t think I’m ever going to feel warm again. The cage is open to the elements and as I’ve quickly discovered, the natives of the planet don’t need fire to keep themselves warm. Their bodies are several degrees warmer than humans. So I do my best to huddle inside of my jacket. My hood is covering my head and I’ve tucked my hands inside of my sleeves. It’s enough to keep me from getting hypothermia or frostbite but I’m still shaking from the cold.
I’m also starting to lose hope that Lodyn is coming for me. Maybe my instinct is wrong, maybe he died in the attack at the ship. Maybe I’m all alone now and no one is going to come and help me. Those thoughts threaten to defeat me but I can’t let myself give up. I think about the women on my team that are counting on me and the people back on Earth that are praying for a successful mission. I can’t let myself be sold to the highest bidder on the slave markets when I have a job I need to finish.
I’m a resourceful woman, I always have been. I know I could fight my way free from these creatures but I don’t know where I am and I don’t know how to get back to the ship. I need to find someone who can help me get back but how the hell do I know who I can trust on an alien planet?
We’ve been traveling for quite a while when we suddenly stop. When I look around there’s still nothing to see, but a cave entrance and a lot of tracks leading inside. I have a bad feeling that this is where they’re taking me. Now we’re here and I’m out of time. I frantically look around the cage again for something to aid in my escape. I’ve looked continuously since we left but I guess I’m hoping that by dumb luck something will come to me that I haven’t thought of yet.
