Cold eyes met his with a menace that sent a chill down Elis's spine. He tucked his wings close in defense of the threat before him. While his heart pounded in his chest to stop the Risaal from recapturing Raea, he tried to sit up, but Dar Lorel pushed him down. Too weak to fight her and wracked with pain, he laid still.
"Leave her," Elis growled through teeth clenched in pain. He couldn't let them hurt Raea. Never would anyone hurt her again.
"If you cooperate." Satisfaction hissed from the Risaal's voice. Ronur Kalas said something in their language to Dar Lorel, who gave a curt nod of acknowledgement. After giving Elis a long look, Ronur Kalas left, the door clicking shut behind him.
Dar Lorel set her scanner aside and looked down on him with a frown. "Do not provoke the Rikku. They will not hesitate to kill anyone who challenges them."
"What are Rikku?" Their ways were alien to him, like their language.
"He is our commander. Kan Rikku Nakor Surik would be our supreme commander. They bear the authority over us. The guards will not hesitate to obey either."
"These are the ones who oppose each other?" This might work to his advantage, if he could figure out a way to use it.
"Yes." She straightened, the faint light from the pod casting eerie shadows upon her human features. "Rest now. I'll send food for you. If you wish to regain your strength, you must eat and rest."
No. He needed to get up and regain his bearings, but for now, he'd wait for food.
Elis said nothing but lay still on the soft mat. Dar Lorel watched him a few seconds before spinning on her heel with unnatural grace and leaving him alone in the dark room. The door clicked behind her.
Soon, another Risaal entered bearing a plate of food and a bottle of water and helped him sit up. Like his other meals in their care, the food was bland or tasted odd. He ate it anyway and washed it down with the water. Dar Lorel was right that he needed his strength, but he wouldn't wait for her approval.
Elis waited for the server to leave, and the moment the door shut, he slid his legs off the cushion. The only way to regain his strength was to work for it.
He slid to the floor, leaning on the open pod to balance himself. While the room didn't spin, his chest ached from his efforts. He could live with that.
Elis clamped his teeth on the pain of moving and focused on taking one step at a time. Although each movement threatened a twinge of pain in his chest, he continued the effort to cross the room one step at a time.
After a short distance that seemed enormous, he set his hands on the warm shell of the other pod for balance. Inside lay one of the Risaal in their natural form, its skin blackened along its front. Probably one he and Raea had blasted in their escape.
One that had survived—a mixed blessing knowing he had killed one less since it was one more to attack them later.
Dar Lorel's request resurfaced. She wanted to kill them all. Keepers didn't kill, at least not unless they had to, but even that was a stain upon their conscious. They had the power, but a power to be used to serve, not to dominate and destroy.
The Risaal would destroy if they had the power. Like the Shirukan of his homeworld, they sought to use the Starfire to subjugate others to their will.
He couldn't allow that either. There had to be a way to keep them from Raea and the other shards.
He and Raea could return to the homeworld. There the Risaal could never reach them, but the Shirukan could.
Dammit!
Elis pounded his fist on the glass with a dull thud. Why did this happen?
He needed the shard of the Eye if he would have a chance of protecting Raea. To find that, he needed to escape, and to start praying the human God was real and led the entities of the shard to accept him. Three very big problems, especially when the second wasn't likely and the other two presented some big risks.
What could he do?
Hope to escape to find the Eye. That's where he would start. Before that, he had to heal and regain his strength; and now he knew he had an ally, one more determined than him not to allow the Risaal to reclaim any pieces of the Starfire.
He glanced into the pod with the injured Risaal. One less death at his hands, but one less guard to interfere when the time came to act.
Time to move.
He turned and started back across the small room, his chest aching, especially as he lifted his wings to aid his balance. While he stood at the midway point, the door handle clicked.
Crystal fire. Elis jumped towards the open pod, but his rushed attempt to reach it sent the room spinning around him. Before he realized he fell, his shoulder smacked the cement floor.
A hiss and something in the Risaal language warned him of trouble before rough hands dragged him up. Oh, no. His stomach twisted and turned, threatening to give up the recent meal.
"So, you're better." Through the black spots mottling his vision, he made out the human face belonging to Ronur Kalas. "Lorel underestimated you. If you can walk, then it's time to return to your task, Inari."
No. Not yet. He wasn't ready.
A dark figure on each side shoved him toward the door into the dim hallway. He was too weak to fight them.
Desert Mirages
The silence of the house surrounded Raea, choking her in the solitude of the room in which she stood, her hand rubbing the vinyl back of the desk chair. His chair in his room. Elis.
He should have been there with her. He should have been the one to survive. Her life was empty without him; she was only a shell now with one purpose. Once she completed the mission to rescue the Starfire in the monolith, nothing else mattered. Nare could take her shard and pass it on to another Keeper. Raea didn't care. Without the Risaal to worry about, Raea could go on with her life.
Or not. The memories of Elis's death would haunt her forever, as clear as if they happened in the instant they happened. Cursed by the Starfire, she never forgot a detail. Her memory never faded.
He should be here. The room had been his. The computer on the desk in the corner had been his. The clothes in the closet—what little there was, since Inari didn't collect material objects—were his.
She would go back to the place he had died, those memories vivid in her mind, to defeat the Risaal and release the Starfire they didn't even know they possessed.
A knock on the door made her heart jump from her chest.
"Sorry." Nare grimaced. "Ready to go? It's almost sunset."
"Yeah…Yeah, just…I'll be down in a minute." She could do this; but her fingers digging into the cushion of the desk chair said otherwise.
"Okay. I'll meet you at the door."
"Yeah." Nare stepped out. Her feet thumped on the steps, including the creaky loose step Elis had always known how to avoid.
This was it. "Only because of you," she whispered, taking in the room one last time, or it felt like it would be her last. She might not survive to graduation.
Tears misted her eyes and she wiped them away. "I miss you so much." She choked down the lump in her throat and took a deep breath. Now was not the time to cry.
Now was the time to act. She had a Starfire shard to find. Hopefully it accepted Nare as a Keeper, even if only temporarily. They would need the power to face the Risaal.
[I've seen your thoughts, Raea. I'm not so sure this is a good idea.] Atia had no right questioning her.
["If you want me to finish this, I do it my way. We'll need all the help we can get."] And that meant the use of another shard.
If Atia had seen her thoughts, then she knew Raea had learned to control her power and trusted Nare. Hopefully, the Lady's consciousness would go with the others when she released them. Raea had enough voices from the Starfire disturbing her thoughts regularly.
Maybe Atia and the Starfire entities would keep quiet and let her do what needed to be done. At least the entities hadn't objected to her plan. She could only guess they supported her. Hell, they had planted the suggested with their revelation of a fifth shard hidden on Earth. Why wouldn't the Starfir
e entities support her?
It should have been Elis that would be the crystal's Keeper, though.
This is for you…and Stein and Torres. None of you will have died in vain. Raea let out a shaky breath and checked her pocket for the spare oblong tri-comm Nare had given her—there and waiting. Time to fly.
She stepped out of the room. Nare waited at the bottom of the stairs, her black leather jacket already on with the fingerless gloves. Like the jackets Evelyn had altered for Elis, Nare's had been altered to accommodate her wings, but a piece of leather covered the opening in the back. No one would know with a casual glance.
Nare checked the silver watch on her wrist while Raea stepped carefully down the stairs. "We have twenty minutes to sunset. It'll be early morning in Cairo. We won't have much time unless we spend the day in the desert."
"We might have to." The valley oasis was hidden and would be hard to find in the dark. They might pass it without even being aware.
Nare's lip twitched into a hint of a grimace but she hid it quickly. "Then I suppose we'd better grab some water bottles."
Good thinking, especially if they ended up having to spend the day in the desert. Now, where—
"Already considered that, dear."
Raea whirled but calmed at the tap of the cane from the dining room. She hadn't even noticed Evelyn. Hunched over from osteoarthritis, the old woman leaned on her cane. Sagged cheeks lifted, but sadness in those gray eyes dulled any joy.
"I heard voices in the early hours and couldn't help but listen."
Then they hadn't been as quiet as Raea had hoped. "Sorry we woke you." Evelyn hadn't said anything throughout the day, but she didn't climb the stairs anymore.
"I wasn't sleeping well. The house was too quiet." Evelyn's eyes dropped.
I'm sure it was. Raea bit her tongue on the sympathy. Elis had shined a new light into the old woman's life. Not only for her; he had been a beacon of hope for many.
"I know I can't stop you, but I can help. He did so much for me...Take what you need from the kitchen, dear."
Leave it to the old widow to help them. Evelyn had a heart of gold, and she had loved Elis like her own son for two years.
"Thanks."
"In the kitchen under the sink."
Raea hurried through the dining room to the kitchen and opened the cabinet doors under the sink. There it was—a case of water bottles in shrink-wrapped plastic. She tore the plastic and grabbed four bottles. They couldn't carry any more without needing a bag, but they shouldn't need any more than that anyway; with luck, they'd be home within a day.
She reached Nare and Evelyn in the foyer and handed two of the bottles to Nare.
"Thanks." Nare tucked each into her jacket pockets, although they mostly stuck out.
A touch on her arm made Raea turn. Old gray eyes misted before her. "You do this for him."
Unable to speak, Raea bent over to embrace Evelyn, her hands still clutching the water bottles.
"You both come back here, let me know you're all right."
"We will." At least, Raea hoped they would; she couldn't predict what troubles they might encounter.
She stepped back without meeting those gray eyes, knowing the sorrow in them would make her cry.
Aware of Nare and Evelyn watching, Raea hurried to slip on her shoes and Elis's jacket, the same she had worn the night they were taken. The faint musky scent surrounded her and filled her with the calm he had always provided. It gave her strength. She did this for him more than the Starfire. He believed in protecting it and her enough to give up his own life. His death would not be in vain.
"His blood?" Nare spoke in a somber tone.
Raea looked down at the brown stain. Dear God. She'd forgotten about that in all the Atlantis confusion—she'd refused to let Evelyn wash it properly, but it looked like the old woman had done some hand scrubbing. The stain was lighter than she remembered, and on the black, hardly noticeable.
"Let's go." She didn't want to talk about it. The memory of the moment he died haunted her in perfect detail. She needed a distraction now.
Raea shoved the water bottles into the jacket's pockets and pulled the door open to a warm spring evening. She stepped down to the cement walk while light breeze whispered through the street, carrying the scent of lilacs in full bloom from the next house over. Leaves rustled on trees, but otherwise the street was quiet.
Except for the hiss and thump of the door behind her.
"So, the usual place?"
Damn, Nare was loud. Why not alert the whole neighborhood while she was at it?
"No, out a ways." Where they were less likely to be noticed by Anita.
Nare said nothing but bowed her head. Well, there was that. She respected the Crystal Keepers. What would she be like as one? I must be insane, or insanely desperate. Nare was nothing less than arrogant most of the time, but it had usually been a reflection of her feelings towards Elis. Raea didn't have a choice. The Starfire would decide Nare's fate.
With a shiver that made her close the oversized jacket, Raea led Nare down the walk to the end of the street. The town was quiet. Not even the Thompson boys played on their skateboards and bikes, but it was around nine already. Pretty late for kids to be out, even if tomorrow was Saturday. Still, she would expect there to be some celebration of school being out for the year. Apparently not.
Good for her and Nare.
No one followed them. Hopefully no one would see them until she opened the portal, and then it would be too late to recognize them from the ground or follow.
They walked along the quiet highway running past Debbie and Mike's house at the edge of town, until they reached the second gravel road after the last block and followed that.
The sun dipped behind the horizon at their backs, stretching their shadows into the darkness encroaching from the east until they blended with it. Raea rubbed at an ache in her shoulder and winced at the pain in her chest.
"You all right?"
"Yeah, just sore. I must've pulled something." Her shoulder wasn't bad, but the aching in her chest worried her. It had lingered too long to be nothing, but she didn't want anything to interfere with their plans. She could rest after the Risaal were defeated. "I'll be all right." As if. Despite the pain, she had to do this.
"Whatever you say." Nare gave her a doubtful look and secured her tri-comm along her cheek. "Ready to fly?"
Raea followed Nare's gaze behind them to the soft lights of the town and pulled her tri-comm from her jeans pocket but hesitated to put it on. A pair of headlights headed their way, the gravel crunching beneath a car's tires in the still of dusk. "Not yet." After the car passed. Chances were she would recognize them—everyone knew everyone in a small town like that—and she didn't need them seeing her transformation. That would make her life better. Not.
Rather than pass them, the car slowed down as it came up.
Oh, no. Not her!
Raea let out a small groan and refused to look at the woman who leaned over from the driver's side.
"Raea! Where are you going?"
Could she even sneeze without Anita knowing?
"We need to get going." The words grumbled out with frustration barely restrained. Man, that woman annoyed her!
"Where?" Anita asked.
"None of your concern." She found the resonance and focused the warmth on her back, ignoring the woman in the car to concentrate on growing her wings. The sooner she lifted off, the sooner she'd be free of the government shadow.
Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! The transformation hurt the same every time, but it always ended. Stretching her wings invigorated her, making the temporary discomfort worthwhile. She secured the tri-comm on her cheek and stepped back from the car.
"Raea, I'm serious. We can't afford to lose you."
"You won't." Damn, she had to get away from that woman.
Within a few flaps, she lifted off. Nare rose behind her.
["Crystal fire. That woman's annoying."] Nare's voice sounded close
over the tri-comm. They'd adjusted the frequency to the same used by Starfire Tower on the homeworld. It had come in handy when she had opened portals, although Saffir had chastised her for attracting the attention of the Shirat Empire. She couldn't win with anyone.
["I agree."] Raea glanced down at the darkening patchwork of fields and pastures sewn by neat rows of roads into a vibrant quilt of spring foliage. Anita's car headed back to town like a needle along one of the roads.
The lights of McClarron glowed a ways behind them. Far enough. ["Can you hold me while I concentrate?"] One day she'd be able to do this while flying, but not that day.
["Sure."] Nare slipped back behind her.
The second the woman's arms secured around her waist, Raea lowered her wings and focused on the resonance. Through it, she connected to the entities. Their experience and connection to the other dimension opened to her so that she was not in her body yet felt anchored. The connection opened a rift.
Before her, the black sphere formed in the dark blue sky, stirring up the few clouds drifting past as it grew and flashed with energy. Raea focused on the pyramids and what the entities knew of their location; they were everywhere yet focused in one place at the same time, all knowing and seeing. They knew the place she wished to make her connection and their energy formed it. For portals, that energy didn't come from her, but she directed it.
The lightning-charged sphere expanded and burst into a black disk around which the clouds slowly twisted. The wind whirled around them.
Just a little more. Raea focused on expanding the portal, wishing in the back of her mind she was as talented as her mother had been to fly and do this at the same time. Some day she would be, but that was in the future, after far more practice than she'd had. For now, she needed help.
There. The black disk hovered before her wide enough for a full wing spread.
Raea opened her wings and pushed Nare's hands off. ["Let's go."]
["Yes, ma'am."] Nare dropped behind while Raea let gravity pull her to the portal and simply flapped to fight the wind trying to toss her about like a leaf.
Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) Page 20