Shield of Drani (World of Drani Book 1)

by Melonie Purcell

  The small tube in his hand vibrated. Through a film of blue, he watched the three Arleles from earlier use their combined telekinesis to hold a massive chunk of wall in the air while a team of Dran dragged bodies out from under it. Nevvis closed his eyes against the image. When he opened them, green leaves and red vines surrounded him.

  Before the security gate even dropped, Nevvis spotted the burn marks on the path—three small circles of blackened moss. Someone had been here. He took off for the house at a run. His wrist-com hadn’t notified him of anyone entering his home, but then the whole system could be offline. Or maybe the Shreet had disabled his security system.

  The side entrance was so obscured by the jungle’s thick underbrush that it was nearly invisible to an untrained eye. Nevvis slipped around a perimeter wall and ducked behind the worfar bush that hid the door. The plant’s vivid green arm-length leaves always made him shudder. If the thick red veins that crawled along the leaves weren’t bad enough, the slime-covered worms that fed on them were. He pushed aside a branch and swiped open a hidden com-panel. A quick read of the viewer confirmed his fears. The system wasn’t communicating with the Newete Planetary Nexus, but at least it was functioning. And the news wasn’t good. Whoever had been here was gone. In fact, everyone was gone. Nevvis checked the display again. The house was empty.

  He swiped open the door and ducked inside as quietly as possible, just in case. Shreet technology was more advanced than the Drani’s. Who knew what they could do? But he needn’t have bothered with stealth. The house was dead quiet.

  Nevvis rounded the corner into the kitchen and stared. Water still dripped off the counter from a spilled glass. A broken cabinet door swung half-open, smeared with blood. Jalkean’s blood. Nevvis knew that much already. Had Taymar been in here putting up a fight, the destruction would have been much worse. He pushed at the broken door with his foot, then ran for the back bedroom.

  The c-field was still active when he crossed the archway into the room. Broken bits of furniture lay in a pile near the bed. Whoever had been here had found Taymar. Nevvis walked over and rubbed his foot over the burn mark on the rug left by their transtrem device. A twisted piece of metal still colored in iridescent shades of blue lay cast against the nearby wall. He looked up to where one of his favorite sculptures had once clung to the wall. The hole told the story.

  Nevvis snatched the bent metal off the floor, ran his hand across the edge, and rubbed the sticky blue liquid between his fingers. Taymar had melded it with her mind and then buried it in at least one of the attackers. But what had they done to her? This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this. Not yet.

  ###

  Urvo stood as Yittbrae reviewed the reports from the raid. In many ways, it had been remarkably successful; however, the one exception to that success was large. As UrvoDii waited, he watched the brae flip through the viewer with a mixture of adoration and, if he was honest with himself, a little fear. Many said the brae had too much hair to command a station this large. Others said the only reason someone with such limited experience was given this command was that any post so far from the Root was a waste. The Urvo knew different—on both counts.

  Finally, the brae waved him over. “So the roe is on her way here now with our samples from Drani?”

  “Yes, sir. We collected several hundred of both species. The losses from our side were negligible. The city was caught completely by surprise.”

  “What do you mean negligible?” The brae touched the viewer and slid his hand through the air. The image of a Dran hung accusingly between them. “I would say this one counts as quite a loss.”

  “Yes, sir. He was supposed to be in the other city at the time of the raid. Reports are unclear, but it seems that he was crushed by debris. But he wasn’t our primary informant.”

  “He was the only one with the freedom to act. The other is too high ranking to be of much use when it comes time to finally take this planet. Tell me you got the one who gave us the codes to their shield systems.”

  “Yes, sir. He is being brought back in one of our darits, so he should be here several cycles before the shuttle holding the samples arrives.”

  The brae nodded. He flipped his hand across the viewer again. The dii knew without asking that he was looking at their newest informant. Even though the commander’s expression remained as neutral as always, the brae’s silence announced that something was wrong. “Notify me the instant his ship lands, regardless of where I am.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He tapped the viewer as he spoke. “I want someone with him, UrvoDii. But not you. You know too much. These telepaths...” Finally the brae gave Urvo his full attention, his orange stare the only thing that betrayed any of the concern he had to be feeling. “Have Rydon there when this Dran arrives. She knows enough to get him in trouble if he comes as an Alliance spy.”

  “I’m relieved that you don’t trust him, sir. I don’t, either.”

  A rare smile creased the brae’s face. “Urvo, on any given cycle, I don’t trust you.”

  UrvoDii smiled back, not the least bit offended. That he was standing in this room was the highest honor he could be given. “Yes, sir. I will keep that in mind. With your permission, I will make the arrangements you have requested.”

  “Before you leave, what report did you send back through the flux?”

  “I notified our home world that our preliminary raid had yielded minimal results and that the planet Drani has not yet been verified as having anything of benefit to the Root.”

  “Did you add to our casualty count?”

  “By eighteen, sir.”

  “Keep careful track of that.”

  “I am, sir. And I have already dispatched the additional personnel to account for our losses.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Stay away from that telepath.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  ###

  Taymar couldn’t breathe. Something large and heavy dropped across her chest, bringing her swimming back to consciousness and knocking the air out of her in the process. Arms flopped against her face as she struggled out from under it. More from panic than anything else, she shoved the limp body away and rolled to her feet, trying to suck air and blink away her hazy vision.

  She staggered sideways just as two Arleles, locked in brutal combat, crashed into the wall beside her. They tumbled over the prone Dran and hit the floor in a ball of fists and elbows, oblivious to anything around them. One of the men sunk his fist into the other’s face, and it sounded like sodden meat being slapped onto a countertop. The smell of sweat and crack of bone washed through her like a drug. When the blood splattered across Taymar’s face, all traces of her grogginess vanished.

  An urge to join them ignited in her like flames through her veins. She had no idea what they were fighting about. She didn’t care. She only knew she wanted to hurt someone. But when she turned to follow the instinct, her foot kicked the fallen Dran. Taymar paused. The man lay unmoving at her feet. Without bending, thus making herself vulnerable to the pandemonium in the room, she tried connecting with the man’s mind, but he had nothing to connect with. The Dran was dead.

  Another Dran thumped into her before spinning around and heading back into the room, if it could be called a room. The urge to attack flared through her again, but she stared at the dead Dran and forced it back.

  When she looked out the third time, she was finally able to take in her surroundings both physically and mentally. A thundering clash of thoughts screamed into her mind, almost crushing it with their intensity, but she struggled through the onslaught and finally managed to lock them out again. A feeling more than a voice spoke of fear and called for stealth. She shut that out too, but pressed her back against the wall just in case.

  Hundreds of Dran and Arleles alike struggled to gain control of the chaos that had descended around them, but for every Dran who had a mental hold on an Arlele, there was another Arlele coming in to
attack. At her best guess, there were hundreds of them, Arleles and Dran alike in what looked to her like a massive holding cell. But the walls weren’t dinisolate lined. Her telepathy reached well beyond them, telling her that a similar room in a similar state of chaos existed right over their heads.

  Someone grabbed Taymar’s arm, and she pulled back to crack her elbow into the offender’s jaw when the Dran woman held out her hands and quickly bent down to help the fallen man.

  “He’s dead,” Taymar said, but she needn’t have bothered. The woman already knew. She seemed intent on moving him out of the way from being trampled, but wasn’t making much progress. “I didn’t do it,” Taymar added.

  The woman tried flipping her dark hair away from her face as she pushed against the dead man, but neither moved far. “This is insane. What are they trying to accomplish?” She grabbed the man under his arms and tried dragging him instead, but her shoes just slipped on the floor, nearly landing her on her rear. He was large, and she was anything but.

  Taymar wrapped her mind around the body and slid him into the corner. As soon as the woman released his arms, Taymar turned him on his side and pulled his forearms up over his face in the proper death position. Only then did she realize the Dran had used their old language. She answered in the same, having to yell to be heard above the fighting. “I don’t think they are trying to accomplish anything. They’re just fighting. It’s what Arleles do. We can’t help it.”

  “I was talking about the Shreet. They…” Her words turned to a scream as a fist-size ball hurtled toward her head. Adrenaline flooded Taymar’s system, fueling her lightning-quick response. Before the Dran could even duck, Taymar teked it to a stop a hand’s length from the woman’s head.

  “What was…give me that!” The woman reached for the conglomeration of metal that had almost killed her, but Taymar yanked it back with her mind and tossed it over to her other hand. The same hand she wanted to shove down the little woman’s tiny pale throat, but she managed to restrain herself. Just barely.

  “You’re welcome,” Taymar said, clenching her fist around the ball to hide the slight tremble in her hands.

  The woman watched Taymar for a moment and decided to back off.

  Smart Dran, Taymar thought.

  “Thank you. Sorry. And thanks for helping me move him.”

  Taymar nodded and gave the ball an appreciative scan. Whoever made it had been fairly resourceful. It was basically a blob of anything malleable that may have been handy. A buckle, some snaps, what looked like part of a Dran’s laser key. Why the maker decided to form the pieces into a ball, Taymar couldn’t guess. She would have gone for something with an edge, or at least a point.

  “Not a good idea,” the Dran said, her voice tentative.

  What wasn’t a good idea? Taymar looked over at the woman. Even if her worry hadn’t been screaming from her mind, it would have been easy enough to see on her face. Taymar followed her gaze back to the ball, only to discover that it no longer existed. Instead, a long, narrow cone stretched past her fingertips, its surface nearly smooth.

  Very slowly, the Dran reached for the cone. “Let me take that,” she said, her words slow and measured.

  Taymar’s heart thundered in her ears. This time, she hadn’t meant to do it. She really hadn’t. She spread her fingers to let the Dran take it, but one of the Arleles across the room jumped up off the floor and threw his hands into the air in victory. Without thinking, Taymar curled her fingers around the cone, fully intending to plunge it into the man’s neck, but the Dran grabbed her arm before she swung.

  “You don’t want to do that,” the woman was saying as she pried the cone out of Taymar’s fist. She mumbled something else, but Taymar barely heard her. Sweat trickled down her temples and her breathing came in short pants as she struggled against the urge to snap the little woman’s neck, or anyone’s neck, for that matter.

  As the room continued to rage with screams and fights, Taymar walked two quick circles, shaking her hands as she went. Nevvis had taught her to do that, and as much as she hated to admit it, the trick worked. When she finished, she addressed the Dran with a shade more of composure. “There is another room like this one upstairs.”

  “Yes, I know, but…wait. How do you know that? You’re a teke.”

  “I’m also a telepath. And whatever these people are who took us, they are worried about someone else finding them. Maybe we are still on Drani.”

  “You can’t be a telepath. You’re a teke.”

  The shaky grip Taymar had on her self-control started slipping.

  “I’ve hear about you. The dual-talent. Incredible.” When Taymar started shaking her hands again, the woman rushed on. “We are definitely not on Drani. What did you say about someone finding us?”

  “Not us, them. The aliens. They’re worried about someone finding them.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I felt them. You can’t feel them?”

  She paused, but only for a second before squeezing her eyes closed and scrubbing them with the back of her hand. “All I can hear is the screaming in this room. Too much mindfill. I can’t even connect with you to make this conversation easier. Are you telling me you can connect with the Shreet minds?”

  “The what?”

  “The aliens. The ones who took us.”

  “Oh. The skinhairs. Yes. I think so. Maybe.”

  “And you’re a telekinetic. Incredible.” The woman surveyed the room and then turned back to Taymar. “Keep shaking your hands. You’re doing great. We need to get some help over here. Do not leave.”

  Taymar rolled her eyes, but decided it wasn’t bad advice. The Arlele who had lost the fight lay unmoving not far from where she stood, blood still trickling from the gash in his face. He was breathing, but only barely. Somewhere in the middle of the room, the victor probably lay on the floor in a similar situation. Starting this journey unconscious had probably saved her life.

  An instant later, the tiny woman reappeared with two male Dran in tow—one tall, bald and absurdly thin, the other average in every way. The bald one looked as if he had been on the bottom of more than one pile. Blood streamed down his temple, but the ridiculous mat of blond hair that clung to his face pretending to be eyebrows kept the blood away from his eye. The second almost invisible Dran radiated his wariness. Understandably. The woman’s surprise at seeing Taymar where she had left her would have been funny on a different day. “Good. You’re still here. That’s…I’m so glad you’re still here.”

  For all that the babbling woman meant well, she sniffed of weakness. That was one thing Taymar couldn’t pass up in her present state, so she moved her attention to the wounded man. “I would close that for you, but I don’t know how.”

  “It’s not as bad as it looks. The bleeding will slow soon.”

  If he didn’t pass out first, but she didn’t say it.

  The invisible Dran searched her with dusty brown eyes. “So you really are the dual-talent?”

  Taymar nodded.

  “Hmmm.”

  The tall one took a cloth the woman handed him, jabbed it against his head, and made an admirable effort at hiding his wince.

  No weakness there, she thought. Good.

  He turned to Taymar. “Well. Here’s the situation. Apparently there’s an Alliance ship nearby. That’s what I’m getting, at least. It’s hard to tell with all the mindfill, and the alien minds are a mess, but I’m mostly sure I’m right.”

  Invisible jumped in. “I’m getting the same thing.” He pointed to the bleeding man. “He’s a shuttle pilot. We’re hoping you can work with him to move this ship into the path of the Alliance ship.”

  Taymar laughed. “Is that a joke? I’ve never even been in a shuttle. You want me to fly one? This one? I don’t have the first idea how to help you.”

  “He doesn’t know how to fly this ship, either,” the woman said. “You’re going to help him find
out.”

  Another victory cry sounded across the room, but it quickly turned into a grunt as someone attacked. Taymar squeezed her eyes closed and tried desperately to dampen the fire that still raged inside. The fight called to her. Her soul answered back. “I will try, but it’s going to be hard,” she said, eyes still closed against the mayhem.

  “She needs a buffer,” the woman said. “She’s doing very well, but it’s taking too much of her concentration. We need to create a wall.”

  “We’ll get some help. You stay with her.” The man with the wound clasped Taymar on the arm, making her jump. “Don’t fall into it.”

  Taymar gave him a weak laugh. That was a lot like throwing someone into the ocean and telling them not to swim.

  As Taymar struggled to find the focus Nevvis was forever raving about, the two men started picking Arleles and Dran out of the crowd. They didn’t spend time explaining. Mostly, they just pointed in Taymar’s general direction, said a few words, and the chosen men and women went. At first, their choices seemed random, but as Taymar watched she quickly saw the reasoning behind their method. The men were picking out the leaders, the ones who were trying to organize the people into groups. On one hand, it was a good move, except that it left the rest of the room to complete anarchy.

  Standing near the first two Arleles to arrive proved to be almost more than Taymar could manage. Fortunately, the two Arleles didn’t seem to be having similar difficulties. Although both of their faces were rigid with intensity, they were in complete control. Probably mining foremen. Rumor had it they were genetically altered. She had asked Nevvis about it once, but he had only laughed.

  By the time the two Dran men brought back their final choice—a Dran woman, pick number six—the inferno that had raged in Taymar was finally down to a bubbling lava.

  Their pilot stumbled and had to grab his fellow Dran to keep from falling. The bleeding had stopped, probably thanks to one of the other Arleles, but he was the color of sea foam and shaking. Since Drani didn’t have a space program to speak of, she knew the odds of having another pilot in the room were about nonexistent. But then so were her chances of using this one to get them into Alliance space to begin with.