Rajani Chronicles II

by Brian S. Converse

  “I hate to tell you this,” Yvette said, “but I can’t understand a word you’re saying to me.”

  “That’s all right,” Rauphangelaa told her. “Please, Bhakat, give her some water, and some food, also. We must find James and the others.”

  Rauphangelaa turned toward Yvette. “James?”

  Yvette shrugged, holding out her hands. “Sorry. I don’t know where anyone else is. I’ve done nothing but fight Krahn since I got here.”

  Rauphangelaa suddenly grabbed his side. “Ung!”

  Bhakat reached out to hold him steady. “We need to find a medical facility. You have broken ribs and—”

  A yellow hand, about two feet across, reached out around his Master’s midsection. It flattened out, forming a kind of bandage, though it was still attached to the end of her arm.

  “What?” Bhakat exclaimed, his eyes wide. “What are you doing?”

  Yvette was now standing, and powered up. One of her arms had created the bandage. “I’m trying to help him. Do you comprende help, you big jerk? It’s why we’re here. Why you brought us here in the first place.”

  A cot formed out of her other arm and went underneath Rauphangelaa. It linked together with the bandage, forming a sort of stretcher.

  “So, please don’t give me any shit,” Yvette continued. “Because I finally get to use these powers to help!” She lifted Rauphangelaa off of the ground. “Are you ready to go?”

  His Master laughed softly at suddenly finding himself carried like a youngling in the cot Yvette had created.

  “Hmmph,” was all Bhakat replied as he walked away. He was fine with her carrying Rauphangelaa, as long as she could keep up and not injure his Master any more than he already was.

  Rauphangelaa soon fell to sleep as Yvette carried him, rocked by the swaying motion of her impromptu stretcher. Bhakat was relieved to have found one of the Humans, and surprised he found himself happy it was the female named Yvette. He wished that he knew more of her language so he could tell her this, but he didn’t. All he could do was communicate using hand signals and his limited vocabulary. He could sense her frustration, which matched his own. He wondered, also, how she would react when she found out that he had implanted himself with a Johar Stone. He didn’t have long to wait.

  As they turned a corner, they came face-to-face with a band of four Krahn on a security patrol. Bhakat saw the Human pull Rauphangelaa into a protective embrace as the Krahn began to fire at them. He instinctively powered up as he ran toward the four Krahn. He was still unsure of what he was going to do once he reached their position. Although he had trained with the Humans aboard the Tukuli, he was still a novice fighter—he’d never been in a real fight in his life. He had only knocked out the two Krahn who were outside of Yvette’s earlier sanctuary, unwilling to kill them.

  He made his way toward the closest Krahn and did as James had instructed him, aiming a blow to the creature’s throat. He was surprised when his hand passed through it, punching out the back of its neck in a spray of blood. He pulled his hand back and ran toward the next closest Krahn, dispatching it just as quickly. In the back of his mind, he could hear a voice crying out for him to stop, but he did his best to ignore it, even though he felt the nausea rising within him. He quickly killed the other two Krahn before just as quickly dropping his energy field and throwing up what little was in his stomach. When the clenching and unclenching of his midsection had finally ceased, he turned to see Yvette standing close by, a look of concern on her face.

  “Bhakat, are you okay?” she asked.

  He nodded, another dry heave racking his body. He didn’t know if he truly was, but he didn’t want to tell her that. He was embarrassed enough as it was at his reaction to killing the four Krahn. From what she’d said, she had killed countless Krahn already.

  “You’ve implanted yourself with a Stone,” she said. He looked up quickly to see if there was any recrimination in her eyes, but he saw only understanding. “You’re very brave,” she continued. “I know how much you’ve given up by doing this. You must have had no other choice.”

  He nodded again and stood up shakily, struggling in his mind for the correct Human words for thank you, but he couldn’t remember them. He wished Janan was there to translate, but in the end, the best he could do was place his hand on her shoulder and gently squeeze it, hoping she would understand the meaning of the gesture. By her smile, he knew it was close enough.

  #

  David was still unconscious, lying on a table much like the ones used on the Tukuli. His shirt was gone now, and his pale white skin was relatively unbruised. The Krahn wanted him alive for this examination. Krahn guards stood watch outside the door of the room he was located in within the Rajani medical facility. There were two Krahn standing over him. They were looking at a small monitor screen that was centered over David’s head. The Krahn were not dressed like most of the others of their kind. These Krahn were not warriors, they were Krahn healers, though their talents were not always used for the good of their patients. The screen showed the inside of David’s skull. It showed almost nothing where the stone should have been. There was an intricate filament winding throughout the entire brain and down toward the spine, but the stone itself was gone.

  “This cannot be,” the first Krahn said.

  “Where is it?” the second Krahn replied, looking at his companion. “Ronak will kill us if—”

  Suddenly, there was an explosion of debris from the doorway that cut off any other musings by the two. The Krahn guards turned toward the large hole that had appeared where the doors once were. Each of the guards were impaled by one of Yvette’s yellow arms, which were now formed into spears.

  Bhakat walked toward the two Krahn healers. He was powered up once again, and he towered over the two Krahn. One of the Krahn ran for the doorway, and Yvette killed it, nonchalantly, while leaning against the edge of the hole in the wall. Her arm lashed out, slicing the creature’s head from its body in a spray of blood. The other Krahn stood its ground, facing Bhakat and hissing. It jumped, screaming, its claws extended at Bhakat’s head. Bhakat easily caught the Krahn by the neck, picking it up over his head and bending its body in half, backwards, feeling its spine and vertebrae break with a loud crunch. He threw the body into the corner.

  Yvette walked over to the operating table and stood over David’s unconscious body, which was still lying on the examining table. “Oh my God, it’s David!”

  Bhakat looked at the screen, which showed David’s skull contents. “He has a slight concussion. He will live.” He chose to ignore the fact the Stone had transformed, as Rauphanagelaa had explained to him it would. His own Stone was probably not quite as advanced in its change, he knew. Bhakat gently picked up David. He pointed toward the hole in the wall that he had made. “Rauphangelaa, please.” He walked over and placed the still-unconscious Human on the floor, making sure he was comfortable. He looked up to see Yvette had walked out to get his Master.

  As he waited for Yvette to return, he inspected the medical equipment, noting the Krahn had hooked it up to a small, portable generator. They’d been lucky; the power was knocked out in the rest of the city. The Krahn had saved him the time it would have taken to find another generator; time they didn’t have, if Rauphangelaa would survive.

  Later that night, Rauphangelaa was on the table. The arms of the medical robot moved over his midsection as Bhakat directed their movements from the operating panel on the table’s side. David was sitting up against the wall and drinking water from a bottle. Yvette stood next to him, leaning back against the wall and watching as Bhakat attempted to repair Rauphangelaa’s broken ribs.

  “So, you weren’t even looking for me?” David asked, smiling and holding the bottle up to her.

  “No. Sorry,” Yvette answered, taking a swig from the proffered bottle. “We needed to use the medical equipment. This is the only hospital we could find that wasn’t totally trashed.”

  David looked around him at the blood and destruct
ion. “Well, it is now.” His eyes went wide as it finally occurred to him that Janan wasn’t there. “Where’s Janan? He was with me.”

  “I don’t know,” Yvette answered. “You were alone when we found you.”

  “We have to find him,” David said, trying to stand and wincing at the pain in his head. “Ugh. Damn it!”

  “You’re in no condition to go anywhere yet,” she said, looking away from him at the approaching form of Bhakat.

  Bhakat walked over to them. “Rauphangelaa. Okay. Soon.”

  “Hey!” David said. “I didn’t know he was learning to speak English.”

  Bhakat placed his hand on Yvette’s shoulder. “I know you cannot understand me, Human,” he said, reverting to Rajani. “But I thank you. It’s…difficult for me to rely on others. But I thank the Kha you are all here to help us.”

  Yvette placed her hand on his and smiled. “I don’t think I need the translation, Bhakat. Thank you.”

  #

  The darkness was complete around him as Janan sat against the wall of his small cell. The Krahn had converted the basement of the Elder’s house into a prison. The cells had bars on the doors, though the walls were solid. From what Janan had seen when they’d first thrown him in the cell, its walls dripped moisture and had web-like white plants growing in various spots along the walls and in the corners. It looked to him as though the Krahn had hastily built the cells using materials from an old fernta cellar.

  Janan was the only prisoner at the moment. He sat with his legs pulled up protectively against his body, his arms around his knees. He’d already been bitten twice by the small creatures known as masagas. He couldn’t see them, but he could hear them as they rustled through the trash in the basement. One of the masagas darted toward him and bit him on the foot, and Janan was forced to kick the creature away, yelling as best he could to scare the others he knew were waiting for their chance to strike from the darkness. Suddenly, a blade of light crossed his face as the door to the basement opened. Janan saw a row of masagas, their eyes glinting in the new light, before they ran off, screeching, to the dark corners of the room.

  A shadow blocked the light on his face as a Krahn guard walked over to the cell. “It’s dinner time, slave,” the Krahn said as it tossed a hunk of bread into the cell. It fell into the muck next to Janan with a soft splat. Janan didn’t stir. The guard laughed. “Toruq tells me that you can understand me, even though I don’t speak your language. Be grateful that you’re important to Ronak, or it could have been the other way around. Instead of us feeding you, you could be feeding us. Personally, I think your eyes look delicious.”

  Janan sat still, with his head hanging down to the tops of his knees, unwilling to give the guard’s taunting any encouragement.

  “What?” the guard asked him. “None of that Rajani spiritual drivel about how your faith will get you through this? I thought you were all a bunch of holy creatures here on Rajan. Or maybe you’re praying right now. Is that it?” His guttural laugh made Janan’s head hurt.

  Janan looked up at the guard. His face was bruised and swollen on the left side, a final gift before he’d been tossed bodily into the cell. “Where’s my Human companion, filth?” he asked with all the anger and contempt he could summon. “If you’ve hurt him, I will kill you.”

  “Ah,” the guard said, smiling down at him with a mouth full of teeth, “that’s what I’m looking for, a little spirit. Don’t worry, you’ll soon meet the same fate as all the others of your kind.” The guard began to walk away, calling back over his shoulder. “And I’m sure you’ll taste just as good.”

  Janan sat in the dark, hearing the Krahn’s cruel laughter echo off the walls of the basement. Then there was only darkness and the chittering of the masagas as they once again approached his cell. His head lowered slowly to rest on his chest once more as tears rolled down through the dirt on his cheeks.

  #

  Yvette, David, and Bhakat sat in the medical clinic eating protein bars that Bhakat had brought from the Tukuli. Bhakat had successfully set and mended Rauph’s leg and ribs, using the medical device to join the ends of the bones together with a temporary adhesive until they mended on their own. The device had luckily detected minimal internal bleeding from a small tear in Rauph’s spleen, and Bhakat had stitched that up as well. While Bhakat worked on Rauph, Yvette and David had cleaned up the clinic, removing the dead Krahn and sweeping up as much rubble and trash as they could.

  “We need to leave as soon as we can,” Yvette said.

  “Why?” David asked around a mouthful of food. “We’re sheltered here, and Rauph is going to need some time to recuperate.”

  “The Krahn know the location of this place,” Yvette replied. “When they don’t hear back from the ones who were here, they’re going to send someone to find out why.”

  “Does it matter?” David asked. “We’ve all been implanted with the Stones. As long as one of us is awake, it’s not like they can get the jump on us. I say we stay here, where at least we can see them coming. We can’t move Rauph for a while anyway.”

  “Are you going to stay up all night on guard duty?” Yvette asked. “I mean, you have a concussion, for God’s sake.”

  “If I have to, I will,” David said defensively. “Look, this is pointless right now. The fact is that, at least for the next few days, we’re going to have to stay here, so we might as well come up with a plan for defending this place.”

  “You’re awfully quiet in all of this,” Yvette said, looking at Bhakat. “Who do you agree with?”

  Bhakat looked from one Human to the other before finally pointing at David.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Yvette said disgustedly, before standing up and leaving.

  Bhakat and David looked at each other for a moment. Then David shrugged, and they both went back to eating.

  A short time later, Yvette returned to find David asleep in the corner, while Bhakat was checking in on his patient. Yvette walked over to Bhakat. “Sorry I got upset earlier,” she said. Bhakat smiled in reply, looking like he was either going to be sick or bite her. He didn’t smile often.

  “You know,” Yvette said, “if we’re going to be stuck here for a little while, we’ve got to work on your communication skills. It’s very annoying trying to have a conversation with someone who can understand me, but I can’t understand in return.”

  Bhakat shrugged, mimicking David’s actions from before. He then nodded.

  “Okay.” Yvette sighed. “Where should we start?”

  Chapter 9

  James spent his days speaking with Mazal and trying not to make too many appearances outside of Mazal’s dwelling unit, in an attempt to not upset or disturb the other occupants. He’d told Mazal all about how he’d come to be on Rajan, about the other humans who were somewhere close to Melaanse, if not somewhere within its limits, and about the Johar Stones. Mazal had taken it all in stride, eager to please the human who had saved him from the Krahn.

  James was amazed at how resourceful the Jirina was when it came to finding the things that James needed. He had asked Mazal for some large pieces of paper and something to write with, and Mazal had brought him a large role of parchment and a box of thin, black writing utensils that seemed to be made of some type of wax and wrote like crayons. He guessed that the Jirina was searching through the surrounding abandoned buildings that had once belonged to Rajani or Sekani. The Jirina themselves seemed to live in sparsely-furnished dwellings, with little as far as luxury items and no electrical appliances, as far as James could see.

  James had Mazal do his best to draw a map of the city and point out their location, which was toward the center of the northern part of Melaanse. Mazal had crudely drawn a map, though he told James that he wasn’t good with distances, so the map wasn’t to scale. At least it gave James an idea of where he was at the moment. He spent a great deal of time poring over the map with Mazal and drawing out the approximate location of landmarks, such as where he was found, where the
individual Rajani Elders lived, and where the Krahn usually patrolled. He also did his best to help Mazal and the other Jirinas look for food and fresh water. He ventured out more often as the days went along, and soon, the Jirina were unafraid if he made an appearance, and some actually began to smile or nod to him when he passed by in the hallway.

  The Jirina, he found, were vegetarians, so many of them already had a small plot of land outside their buildings to grow their own food, which helped. Unfortunately, not many of the plants had produced fruit or vegetables as of yet, because it was still early in the season. Most of what they were able to find were dry stores and preserves. He’d also had them go out and retrieve the weapons from the Krahn that he had defeated earlier. The Jirina brought back three rifles and a handgun, as well as two small, wickedly barbed knives.

  Not much to start a rebellion, James thought. But they’re better than nothing. He looked over the weapons and saw that they were crude, though effective. They fired egg-shaped projectiles made of a dark metal. He showed Mazal how to fire one of the empty rifles, though the Jirina looked like he might not be able to hit the broad side of a barn with it; he would cringe every time he pulled the trigger, even though he knew the weapon wasn’t loaded.

  James was surprised that the time was going by so swiftly, and he vowed that he would soon have to leave the hospitality of Mazal and the other Jirina and strike out in search of his companions. He had plotted on the map what he thought the Tukuli’s course was when they had crashed and hoped to follow the line on his map and find them.

  One day, after James had counted back and figured out that he had been in the Jirina’s company for approximately three weeks, he made up his mind to set out. He bade goodbye to the Jirina neighbors that he had met while there and packed a small bag with some of the preserved fruits and vegetables that had been found. He waited until Mazal returned from a scavenging mission so that he could say goodbye.