by Cheree Alsop
The Cherum’s gaze turned purple. He was amused. “Don’t you wonder why we let him come back to you instead of killing him?”
Liora didn’t want to know why. She waited in silence, standing between the Cherum and the man she loved who had tried to kill her with the rage of a savage beast. The tone with which the Cherum spoke sent chills through her; she knew there was more to their actions. A race without the ability to defend itself is a desperate one. She had already seen the lengths they would go to in order to create their army; she didn’t want to know how she figured into their equation.
“Love and fear counterbalance each other,” the Cherum said. “A Damaclan alone might clear the halls, but a Damaclan in love?” He paused and his eyes turned green. “What a fierce creature indeed. How far will you go to protect your human? How many lives will you take to save the one you love?”
Liora spoke the truth she saw in the Cherum’s gaze. “All of them.”
The Cherum bowed his head in acknowledgement to her words. “Clear Basttist of the Vos and we will remove the chip from Tariq’s brain.”
Liora held his gaze. “You said removing the chip would kill him.”
The Cherum lifted his hand. She could see the bones illuminated by the gentle light of the wall behind him. It would take very little effort to snap those fingers.
“We weren’t made to kill, Lioraday. We were made to create. With the Vos gone, there will be no limit to our abilities.”
Liora made a decision. “I will fight for you on one condition. As soon as we are done, you give me a ship that can reach the Dreyer Nebula Galaxy and I take half of the surviving army with me.”
The Cherum paused, his gaze distant for a moment. He then looked back at her and gave her a nod. “It is approved.”
He passed back through the door and it shut behind him without another word. Liora watched the wall return to normal. His answer hadn’t been a promise that he could undo what they had done to Tariq, but it was better than nothing. At least talking to the Cherum had given her a plan. Their purposes might mesh for the time being and the Cherum had given her exactly what she needed; an army to fight for Brandis.
Chapter 7
Liora touched Tariq’s back. She watched his muscles tense beneath his shirt. Instinct bade her to draw the knife at her side in case he attacked her again. She pushed the feeling away.
“You shouldn’t touch me.”
Tariq’s voice was tight like his muscles. He had his forehead pressed against the wall and his hands strained on the softly glowing surface as if he wanted to shove through it. It looked like he did everything he could to control himself.
“You’re stronger than this,” she said quietly.
Tariq shook his head. His eyes were closed tight.
“Not against this,” he said. “I can’t fight it. All I want to do is tear apart everything around me. I don’t need a reason; I just want to kill, maim, and break anything I can get my hands on.”
There were confusion and agony in his voice as though fighting against the compulsion brought physical pain.
“They said they would remove the chip as soon as we defeat the Vos,” Liora told him.
He tipped his head to one side to see her. When he opened his eyes, the light blue gaze was filled with torment.
“They also told you I was dead, remember? Why do you trust them?”
“I don’t,” Liora replied. “But we need them to get to the Dreyer Galaxy. Arriving there with an army would be handy.”
Tariq nodded. He stepped back from the wall, his hands curled into fists as he maintained careful control over his will.
“You need to stay back,” he told her.
Liora shook her head. “That’s the last thing I’m going to do.”
Tariq’s gaze was pleading when he said, “Liora, I could break you like a stick of vogum cane. You need to keep your distance.”
“You’d have to catch me first,” Liora told him. She stepped back when he advanced. She kept her tone light when she continued, “And you’d have to outfight me.”
“That’s all?” he replied.
A hint of the teasing light she loved surfaced in his gaze.
“That’s all,” she repeated. “Simple enough.”
He reached a hand out for her. She stepped inside of his grasp, kissed him swiftly on the lips, and spun out of reach again faster than he could react.
A smile touched his face. “You’re impossible, you know that?”
“That’s why you love me,” she replied.
Softness brushed the edge of his jaw and his fists relaxed. He nodded. “I do.”
Liora stepped into his arms. She kept alert in case his rage took over, but it appeared that he had found a way to control his aggressive emotions, at least for the time being. Liora put a hand on his chest and looked up into his blue gaze.
“We’ll figure this out together, alright?”
Tariq looked down at her, his eyebrows pulled together and his gaze piercing through her to her soul. He brought his hands up and tentatively wrapped his arms around her. When she didn’t flinch at his touch, he held her closer.
“Alright, Liora.”
Liora leaned against his chest and closed her eyes. The sound of his heartbeat pounded beneath her ear. She remembered the absence of the familiar sound in the escape pod. It was something she never wanted to experience again.
“You’re sure you can handle a psychotic rage beast for a boyfriend?”
Liora looked up at him. “Is that any different than the boyfriend I’ve had all along?”
“Very funny,” Tariq replied with a low chuckle.
Liora was quiet for a moment before she said, “Tariq, if there’s anyone in this Macrocosm that understands bloodlust and aggression, it’s me. That’s a battle I’ve fought my entire life. There’s a reason everyone fears a Damaclan.”
Tariq let out a slow breath. “Yes, but do the Damaclan fear themselves?”
The question lingered in the air between them. The door opened before Liora could come up with an answer.
“They are ready,” the Cherum announced.
Tariq glared at him when they passed. Liora checked her weapons, glad to be in her Ventican clothing once more. The weight of the blades felt right at her thigh and her belt. She tightened the sheath around her wrist and pulled her sleeve back down. At least she wouldn’t have to use a jawbone to fight the Vos this time.
They were led along a winding hallway to the floor of the huge, domed training room. Rows up on rows of the Cherum’s army spread out before them, each holding a staff tipped by a serrated blade.
“You don’t have guns?” Liora asked.
“The Vos are simple-minded creatures. We don’t feel that guns will be necessary against our army.”
“Of course not,” Tariq muttered from Liora’s other side.
She glanced at him. He watched the warriors before them with a guarded expression. Liora felt the same way. Heading out into Basttist’s vast desert with a violent, anger-enhanced army felt like a bad idea; unfortunately, it was the only option they had at the moment.
“We will show you to the tunnels. Return when the Vos are destroyed.”
Liora didn’t like the Cherum’s presumptive tones. The Cherum hadn’t been able to rid the complex of the Vos, and now the creatures were simple-minded targets waiting to be picked off without even the need for modern weapons.
“They’ve already been informed of your leadership,” the Cherum continued. “They will follow you to their deaths.”
“That sounds promising,” Liora replied dryly.
“It is promising,” the Cherum said, missing her sarcastic tone.
Tariq let out a single, low chuckle on her other side. Liora elbowed him. His eyes flashed with anger and her muscles tensed in anticipation of attack. Tariq looked away, his fists clenched and gaze haunted.
Liora realized that she wasn’t going out with an army of thousands and her friend at her side. Ta
riq was a part of the army. He was ready to follow her to his death as well. Without the ability to turn from a situation when his instincts told him it wasn’t survivable, the outcome was very possible.
Liora walked beside the Cherum to the far wall of the compound. At a single word from the being, the army fell in behind them. When they neared the wall, a massive hole appeared. It was wide enough to accommodate twenty warriors abreast, and the hallway beyond was the same. However, instead of the smooth glowing walls of the compound, the walls of the tunnel appeared rough, hewn from the yellow stone of the planet.
“Do the tunnels take us all the way to the Vos?” Tariq asked.
The Cherum motioned with his long fingers. “The Vos live within the tunnels and without. The temperatures on the surface of Basttist are too hot for the Cherum, but the Vos are able to transverse both. Be wary for attacks from above.”
Liora stepped into the tunnel with a feeling of trepidation tightening her muscles. Bars that glowed like the walls ran above them, but the light wasn’t quite enough to break the shadows beyond. Liora unsheathed her knife.
Tariq glanced at her. “Edgy?” he asked.
Liora looked over her shoulder at the rows upon rows of men and women of every race imaginable following them into the tunnel. Their footsteps were soft shushes in the fine sand that covered the bottom of the passageway. There was no talking and the impassive gazes that met her eyes seemed wrong. The silence from the warriors was unnerving.
“I’m not sure where the enemy lies,” Liora replied.
Tariq nodded in agreement. “We didn’t sign up for this.”
Liora thought of the microchip in his head. “We didn’t sign up for any of this,” she agreed quietly.
Smaller tunnels branched off from the main one. Liora kept to the larger path. The thought of being caught in one of the smaller holes with Vos in front of her and the warriors behind set her on edge.
The sounds of claws on the rock turned her head. She peered down one of the smaller tunnels, but the light from the bars above didn’t pierce the darkness.
Liora realized the warriors’ staves with serrated blades on the tips would be hindered in the hallway. She grabbed the weapon from the closest warrior and held it over her head.
“Break your weapons in half,” she commanded. “It’ll give you a better chance to kill the enemy and not each other in this close quarters.”
She brought the staff down on her knee and it snapped. She handed the warrior back the two pieces. The others followed and the command ran down the line so that the sound of cracking staves echoed back and forth. The fact that the army followed without question was at least reassuring of her position as their leader. Perhaps they would have a chance.
The further they walked, the more the sounds of claws in the darkness followed until Liora peered into a tunnel and found the round black eyes of a dozen Vos staring back at her.
“We’re under attack!” Liora shouted.
The sound of the army spacing themselves to fight was loud in the passage. They didn’t have armor or any type of defense for combat besides the broken staves in their hands. Liora could only hope that the battle training they had received from the Cherum would be enough.
A hiss sounded and black spray shot from the tunnels around them. Liora shielded her face with her arm. The Ventican clothing took the brunt of the spray, saving her from the acidic effects. All around her, the warriors cried out in pain as their skin melted and smoked.
Instead of cringing away, however, the Cherum’s army turned from pain to anger. Liora saw the battle lust in their eyes, the rage brought on by the programming of the microchips. The warriors surged forward, storming down the tunnels on every side.
“Stay together!” Liora yelled. “Don’t separate!”
Unable to hear her command in the chaos, the warriors lashed out at the Vos in the darkness. A figure brushed past Liora. She stared at Tariq’s form as he charged into the depths of the channel after the Vos. She couldn’t let him go alone. Against her instincts, Liora followed Tariq into the obscurity.
Her blades met Vos right and left. Their scales were tough, but the metal of her weapons bit deep. In the half-light, she aimed for throats and stomachs until the floor was slick with blood and entrails. Her Ventican outfit proved strong against the sharp claws and hooked teeth.
Liora let out a yell when a Vos’ claws scraped along the side of her head. She spun and sunk her knife deep into the creature’s throat, then sliced downward to spill the contents of his stomach along the floor.
She heard Tariq grunt in pain. Turning, she saw huge bloody rents along his arms and chest. A Vos had latched onto his shoulder with its hooked teeth. He stabbed the creature repeatedly with his serrated blade. It tried to get away, but the teeth held it fast until that was the only thing holding it up.
With one swipe, Tariq separated the Vos’ head from its body. The carcass fell to the floor with a thud. Liora shoved her knife between its jaws and pried the teeth from his mangled flesh. She got it free and was about to drop the head when an image struck her.
Three pillars of light hit the ground, scattering members of the family. They hid among the boulders and watched tall, pale creatures float down the light to land on the yellow sand.
The image had been burned into the Vos’ mind with such strength it was the creature’s final thought. Liora stared at the head in her hands. A fine eyelid made of delicate, translucent skin covered its dark eye; she guessed it was to protect the Vos from the sand. The slight scales that made up its snout showed a variety of orange in softly hued patterns she hadn’t noticed before. Fine hairs covered the slits that made up the Vos’ nose.
There was a delicacy to the head she held that increased the foreboding in Liora’s chest. She looked at the bodies scattered along the ground. Though their padded feet were tipped in long claws, the claws appeared better suited to digging than fighting, especially given the short stature of the legs. The creatures were built for speed and the sunlight, yet they hid in the tunnels of Basttist.
“Liora?” Tariq asked.
She glanced at him. Blood from the fight colored his face. His expression still showed the battle fury inside of him, yet there was a gentleness to his gaze when he said her name that seemed to calm him.
“I think we’re making a mistake,” Liora said.
She had to know for sure. She set the head down carefully beside its body and took off back up the way they had come.
“What do you mean?” Tariq asked, catching up.
“I think we’re fighting for the wrong side,” Liora said above the din of the battle.
She saw Tariq stop short out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t slow. She had to verify what she thought, and there was only one way to be sure.
She reached the opened into the larger tunnel to see the warriors in the midst of combat against the Vos. Blood was everywhere. Bodies of both the Cherum’s army and the Vos lay in every direction.
Tariq reached her side. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need a Vos; a live one,” she told him.
Without showing any emotion about the enormity of the task, Tariq reached the closest battle and bulldozed a warrior fighting one of the Vos. As soon as Tariq reached his feet again, he tackled the creature, pinning its legs beneath it. The Vos writhed, its tail thrashing and black liquid spattering the wall he pinned it against. Tariq didn’t release his hold.
Liora dropped to her knees next to the creature and put her hands on its head. The Vos immediately stopped moving.
Liora searched through its thoughts. She didn’t know what she was looking for. The mind of the Vos appeared similar to the felis from Verdan, but there was an intelligence to its patterning that surprised her. The thoughts were coherent, the memories bright. Liora searched until she found what she was looking for.
The complex was built in less than a week by the army of creatures the tall ones commanded. Any attempts to communicate we
re rebuked. A member of the family was slain, her head skewered on a staff outside the compound. Others were sent and the number of heads grew.
The tall ones were not there to live in peace. They would destroy anyone who attempted to stop their progress. The family fell back, but the tall ones directed skirmishes to pick off those they could. The impact of loss made the family desperate; the Father sent half of them to attack. They weren’t heard from again. Fearing that the absent members of their family were trapped within the compound, the Father commanded them to advance and wait in the tunnels until the time came to attack and defend their right to their home.
Liora took her hands away. Horror filled her.
“We’re fighting the wrong people,” she said to Tariq. “The Cherum are taking this planet by force; they’re killing anything in their path.”
Tariq backed up a few steps and Liora let the Vos go. It watched her, its eyes not blinking and muscles tense as though it was ready to run if need be.
Liora pushed her thoughts toward it. She showed the Cherum complex and the rows upon rows of warriors. She showed it the Cherum, meek and quiet as they put microchips in the heads of their army.
“I need to know why the Cherum are here,” Liora said.
If the Cherum were indeed taking the planet by force, she had to understand the reasoning behind it before she allowed the army to slay more of the Vos.
“How do we stop them?” Tariq asked.
Liora followed his gaze to the slaughter that continued down the tunnels. The Vos and the warriors were both taking heavy losses. Liora didn’t know how to protect them from each other, but she had to try.
She closed her eyes and pushed. The Vos didn’t speak in a language she could understand or emulate, so instead, she chose to go with emotions. Using her adrenaline-fueled strength, she forced feelings of peace and acceptance down the tunnel and along the branching paths.
The minds of the warriors she touched met her with confusion. The anger and aggression caused by the microchips were hard to combat. She answered with feelings of contentment and amity. In the minds of the Vos, she found fear and protectiveness. She returned with reassurance and understanding.