“What?” Kieren asked, looking surprised at this statement from the Sekani leader. “How do you know?”
“We have a traitor or traitors in our midst,” Zanth explained. “It could be any of those who were just here, or none of them, I don’t know.”
Gianni was perturbed. He was tired of not knowing what they were saying. “What’s going on! God, I hate this shit.”
Kieren reached over and grabbed his hand, trying to calm him down before he once again did something stupid. “Be patient…”
Both of their powers fields flared around their clasped hands, which were now powered up. The energy field reached to about their wrists before thinning out and disappearing, making them look like they each had a glove on one hand made of their energy fields.
“What the…?” Gianni began, now speaking fluent Sekani.
All three of them had surprised looks on their faces as they looked at the clasped hands.
“The legends are real,” Zanth said in quiet wonder.
“Hey,” Gianni said. “I can understand you!”
“And you speak our language now, as well,” Zanth told him. “The Stones are real, and they are everything the stories say they are.”
Kieren smiled. “You haven’t seen anything, yet.”
Zanth still had both hands clasped on the armrests of his chair, as if afraid he would fall out of it. “We must evacuate this place before the Krahn attack. They will stop at nothing to obtain the Stones, I’m sure. Unfortunately, this means I must now trust you enough for us all to escape this place.”
“Don’t do us any favors,” Gianni told him. “Just point us in the direction of Melaanse, and we’ll be on our way.”
“Gianni!” Kieren said, appalled at Gianni’s lack of good manners.
Zanth stood and threw his hands up in the air, an angry expression on his face. “You are in Melaanse! Behold! What was once the greatest city on Rajan is now ashes! It’s gone!” Zanth lowered his hands to his sides and looked down at the ground. “All of it, it’s gone. All of it gone,” he said quietly.
They heard the muffled sounds of weapons discharging outside of the building.
“They’re here!” Zanth yelled, his eyes growing wider. “We must go now, before it’s too late.”
Both Kieren and Gianni powered up all the way now. They were no longer holding hands. Zanth jumped back and screamed at the sight of the two of them; startled at their sudden transformation.
“You go with the Sekani,” Gianni told her. “I’ll cover you both while you escape.”
Kieren had an angry look on her face as she turned to look at Gianni. “Like hell you will. We go together. We can’t afford to be separated.”
“Just can’t live without me, huh?” Gianni asked, a mocking smile on his face. He stopped smiling, and they looked at each other for a long moment, each unsure what the other was thinking, without being able to see the other’s face clearly through their power field.
Zanth broke their contemplation of each other. He was standing in the doorway, looking down the hall. “Hurry! They’ll be coming down the hall at any moment.”
Gianni stepped out into the hall. He could see armed Krahn warriors coming toward their position. He fashioned his hands into guns and formed a red force shield in front of him. “Get behind me!” he screamed at the others as he started shooting bolts of energy through his shield. The Krahn bullets and lasers bounced off of it, unable to penetrate. “Go!”
Kieren and Zanth swiftly moved down the hall away from him. Gianni gradually backed up, following them slowly. His force shield followed him, staying about ten feet away from him, though there were spaces between it and the uneven walls and floor. He was afraid that a stray bullet or lucky shot would find its way between the wall and the shield, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. His shield wouldn’t bend or change shape, no matter how hard he’d tried back on the Tukuli, and it was no different on Rajan. At last, he came to the end of the hallway and left his force shield blocking the doorway, while he followed Kieren and Zanth away from the building.
He looked back once to see two or three of the Krahn warriors standing on the other side of the shield, looking at him. He gave them the finger, and then turned quickly and followed after Kieren. He kept his shield up for as long as he could, which was difficult once he could no longer see it with his eyes, and only felt it in his mind. It was difficult to concentrate and run at the same time. He carefully followed Kieren and Zanth as the Sekani led them along twisting paths between piles of debris and vehicles and through alleys surrounded by the remains of Rajani buildings.
Finally, they came to the end of a long alleyway, and Zanth motioned for them to stop. “You must wait here, out of sight, for a moment,” he told them. “I have to go on ahead to let them know I’m bringing guests.”
“Tell whom—?” Kieren began, but Zanth had already stepped around the corner of the nearest building.
“Now what?” Gianni asked her.
“I don’t know,” Kieren replied. “He just asked us to wait here a moment.”
“Do you think we can trust him?” Gianni asked, looking around the alleyway. He had been so focused on Zanth’s back as they walked that he hadn’t had a chance to just look around at his surroundings. He thought that if Melaanse had a shady side, then this was probably it. He could also smell salt water, and figured they must be close to the ocean.
After a few minutes, Zanth returned. Gianni put his hand on Kieren’s arm, and their fields flared once again, as their powers connected. “I must ask you to trust me as I trust you,” Zanth said, his eyes wide once again at their appearance. “I would ask that you please make your shielding disappear.”
“Why?” Kieren asked, sounding unsure. Gianni shared the sentiment. Their encounter with the Krahn had been too close for comfort.
“Because I’m afraid you might frighten them if you came around the corner looking like that,” Zanth replied. “Please.”
Kieren dropped her energy field and looked at Gianni. “I think we can trust him, Gianni. Can you drop your field before we go any farther?”
Gianni looked from her to Zanth and back. “I don’t trust him, but I’ll trust your judgment.” He dropped his field.
Kieren smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“Come,” Zanth said, motioning forward. “They’re expecting us.” He led them around the corner of the building, and they saw that there were a number of armed Sekani guards in front of a large iron gate set in a wall that looked about six feet tall and was made of thick stone. The wall surrounded a collection of buildings that were mostly in good shape, from what they could see. The large buildings were directly on the waterfront. Zanth walked past the guards and motioned for Kieren and Gianni to follow him. The guards acknowledged Zanth with deferential nods of their heads and looked up at the two humans with suspicious expressions.
Once past the outer gate, Zanth led them to the nearest building, a large structure that seemed to have been some sort of warehouse. Zanth passed through the doorway and stopped a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light inside the building. Gianni and Kieren stepped through the doorway and stopped as well, but more from surprise than the bad lighting. The building was full of Sekani. There were hundreds of them. It must have been some sort of emergency shelter. There were beds set up, and personal possessions, such as clothing and other items, were scattered around the beds.
Zanth turned to them. “Do you know now why I needed to be able to trust you with this secret?” he asked.
“Yes,” Kieren replied. “I understand now.”
“The area outside these storage buildings was once a large marketplace,” Zanth said. “Now it serves as home to thousands of Sekani. Any who were found alive have been brought here.” He started walking again between the rows of beds, nodding to some of the Sekani and smiling at some of the younger ones, who were looking at the two humans fearfully. “If the Krahn knew of its location, I shudde
r to think of what would happen to all of these family units.”
Gianni could see that many of the Sekani were dirty, and their clothing was torn. Some of them were eating, though not many that he could see. Many just sat and stared straight ahead, still shell-shocked from the Krahn attacks. He heard coughing and babies crying as well, though it sounded more like the mewing of kittens than the cries of human children. It reminded him of news footage he’d seen of natural disasters back on Earth. The Sekani were in desperate need of help.
Chapter 5
It had taken James a while to convince the Jirina named Mazal to stop prostrating himself every time James said something, especially after he’d powered up once again to break off the creature’s bonds. He knew that they needed to find shelter before they were rediscovered by the Krahn. He attempted to talk to the Jirina in Talondarian Standard while powered up, but ended up scaring the poor creature even worse, at first. Finally, he was able to get across his need to seek shelter, and the Jirina led him to an abandoned building that was next to the crumbled remains of what used to be a cathedral of some sort. It could have been an outhouse for all James knew of Rajani architecture. One of the walls had either caved in or been blown in, but it had a roof, and the day was still warm. It would have to do.
James let his energy field disappear and sat down heavily on the floor. He ached all over. It had been a rough trip down in the escape pod. On top of that, he was ravenously hungry from using his powers. The Jirina crouched a few feet away. James thought that he looked completely miserable, even though he didn’t know enough about the species to truly know what the alien was thinking. Then the Jirina began to cry. Great racking sobs shook his hefty, bovine frame as enormous tears flowed from his large brown eyes. James felt pity for him. He couldn’t imagine the horrors the Jirina had been through and witnessed since the Krahn had first attacked.
James waited for the sobs to slow down, and for the Jirina to compose himself a little before he spoke. “Name?” he asked the creature in Talondarian Standard, quietly, not wanting to startle him. The Jirina had been speaking so fast earlier that he wanted to make sure he had his name right before he said it. He couldn’t go on thinking of him as ‘the Jirina.’
“Mazal,” the Jirina answered, not looking up at him.
“I…am happy to…meet you, Mazal,” James said hesitantly, or at least, that was what he tried to say. He had never been good at learning foreign languages in school, and absolutely nothing had changed since then. Mazal didn’t answer, but whether it was because of James’s linguistic deficiencies or because he was still in shock, James couldn’t tell.
He decided to just leave the creature alone for the moment and try to figure out what his next move should be. Being separated from the others was a worst-case scenario that he had hoped would never come to pass, but it had happened, so he would just have to deal with his present situation. He had a feeling that Mazal wasn’t going to be much help, but he couldn’t abandon him to a likely horrible fate at the hands of the Krahn. He was here to help all of the inhabitants of Rajan, so he’d begin one at a time, if he had to.
He stood up, causing Mazal’s eyes to open wide in fright. “It’s okay,” he said, as soothingly as he could. “Just needed to stretch my legs a bit.” He continued talking in a low tone of voice as he looked around their adopted shelter, mostly just to keep the Jirina calm. It was obvious that their current position was way too exposed to be defended adequately. They would have to move on as soon as they could. James guessed that they were somewhere close to the outer city limits. He thought he remembered seeing the ocean after his brief capture, but events had happened so fast, he couldn’t be sure. If it had been the ocean, then the Krahn had been bringing him south, farther into the city.
He remembered from his briefings on the Tukuli that the city of Melaanse sat on the eastern shore of the large ocean on Rajan. He must be on the eastern side of the city, but that was about all he could surmise from his brief glimpse of water. He heard the rustling of clothing behind him and turned to see that the Jirina had stopped crying and was now standing up and looking at him. He stopped his low patter and waited expectantly.
“James,” the Jirina said, pointing at James with a very large, three-fingered hand. James nodded.
“Mazal,” the Jirina said, pointing to himself.
“Mazal,” James repeated, trying to copy the alien’s accent and inflection.
Mazal pointed to the ceiling and made a slashing motion with his hand. “No good, do you understand?”
James only understood “no,” but got the gist of Mazal’s meaning. The Jirina knew that they couldn’t stay there as well. He pointed to Mazal and then to himself, then out toward the city’s remains. “Go,” he said.
Mazal smiled, showing large, square white teeth. At least, James guessed it was a smile. He motioned for James to follow him, and then turned and walked to the edge of the knocked-down wall before stopping to look around for any signs of danger. James caught up to him and did his own reconnaissance of the area. He couldn’t see anything that suggested a Krahn presence. He had a feeling that the Krahn weren’t that subtle.
Mazal sniffed the air a few times, taking in deep breaths through his large nostrils. He turned to look at James and nodded. They both stepped out onto the hard rock of what looked to be a street. Vehicles were strewn about haphazardly, some with holes blown in them, and some with their occupants dead inside, or hanging half out, riddled with holes, struck down before they could even escape the confines of their broken vehicles. It occurred to James that the city seemed awfully deserted. Either the Rajani were in hiding, or they had all been rounded up by the Krahn and were being held captive somewhere. If that was the case, he’d have to find where they were if he was to try to begin a rebellion. Hopefully along the way, he would find the others. He forced himself not to think about what might have happened to them—especially to Yvette. He knew there was nothing he could do for them at the moment.
#
Kieren looked around at the faces of the Sekani who were sitting, lying down, or standing within the building that Zanth had led them to. She hadn’t known Janan well on the Tukuli, but she could tell that the Sekani she was looking at now were given over to despair. Their eyes were dull and their expressions listless, for the most part. She also noticed that those who weren’t lost in their own misery were looking at her and Gianni with suspicion bordering on aggression. They were unknown, and Kieren had expected that they might not get a warm reception, but what she saw displayed on their faces made her think about powering up right there.
“I apologize if we don’t offer you any more food or water than when we first met,” Zanth said softly, “but as you can see, we cannot spare any more than we already have.” He turned to the gathered Sekani and spoke louder. “Kieren and Gianni are called Humans. They came here to help us and are guests of the Sekani. I expect them to be treated as such.”
Kieren was surprised at the change in the expressions on their faces as Zanth spoke. She wasn’t sure, but she thought that the naked aggression softened, and in some cases, may have been changed to something bordering on hope. Whether it was because she and Gianni were now considered guests, or because Zanth had told them that they were there to help, she couldn’t be sure. At least she didn’t feel so threatened, and for that, she was grateful. All she did know was that there was a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. She looked at Gianni, who probably wore the same expression on his face that she had on her own. But she was also surprised that he was not showing contempt, which seemed to be his usual expression.
What she saw on his face was pity, as well as determination. It also occurred to her that he hadn’t said a word since they’d entered the building. He turned to look at her, and she nodded at him, knowing that he was feeling the same things she was. It was time to get to work.
“Zanth,” she began, “is there a place that we can talk?”
The Sekani nodded and led h
er through the building to a doorway. She followed him through the doorway to see a short hallway that led to three other doors. He walked to the end of the hallway and opened the door straight ahead of him. She could see even before they went through the doorway that it was a small room set up with a table and four chairs.
Zanth sat down and motioned for them to do the same. “I apologize for the cramped quarters, but this is the best I can do for now.” Kieren sat down on the undersized chair and knew that Gianni must be feeling squeezed by the sides of his, though he didn’t say a word about it.
“It’s more than adequate,” she replied. “I don’t want to seem like I’m questioning your leadership or trying to take over, but it would help us to understand things if we knew the current situation. Before we can do anything to help you, we need to know what has already been done.”
“That is understandable,” Zanth said.
Gianni leaned forward and grabbed her wrist, their powers flaring together as they had before. “There, that’s better,” he said.
“Uh, sorry,” she said, feeling embarrassed that she hadn’t thought to include him in the conversation. “I was just telling Zanth that we needed to know the situation as it stands right now.”
“And I agree,” Zanth said, his eyes wide at seeing their powers again. “As you can see, I’ve been collecting together any Sekani that I can find. The Krahn have been picking off small groups, so I’ve done my best to rescue them before they’re discovered. Of course, it doesn’t do any good to rescue them if we cannot help them once they’ve been found. To that end, I’ve done my best to organize search parties to go out and find what food and water that can possibly be gathered in the immediate vicinity.”
Kieren nodded as Zanth spoke. He seemed to be handling events the best he could. She was no expert on coping with disasters. All she knew was from what she had seen and read about natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Rita, and various earthquakes, tsunamis, and droughts in other areas of the Earth.
Rajani Chronicles II Page 6