"It is complicated," he said again.
Still frowning, I just looked at him for a moment. When I glanced back at the orange-eyed witch, she was staring between me and Nihkil, as if trying to figure out a puzzle that eluded her grasp.
"What do they want with me?" I asked, looking back at Nihkil. "Why would they be interested in me at all?"
"You came through the door...” Nihkil began. He hesitated, looking at the two figures he'd called hybrids. “...There are anomalies in your being here. Things that make no sense. They are trying to understand. Why you came through. Why the door closed."
"What does that mean?" I said. "About the door being closed?"
He hesitated, looking at the female hybrid.
The woman's eyes had narrowed.
By her expression, she was trying to decide if our conversation constituted some kind of trick. At the same time, a faint light had come to those large eyes, like a spark of understanding. Whatever it meant, Nihkil seemed to notice it, too. I watched his expression grow taut as he watched the woman warily.
The woman was looking at me alone now, though, almost smiling.
"You are from the First Planet," she said. "He thinks so, anyway."
At my bewildered look, the woman's smile only grew.
"It is possible, yes,” she said. “It could explain why you are different. It could explain why both gates led there... the one here, on Trinith, and the one on Udael. It could explain why you could shift here, without the process killing you. It could also perhaps explain why the door closed upon your arrival."
To see those deadened eyes so animated made my breath falter.
Whatever the woman was talking about, she was a little too exited about it.
Screams erupted around us.
I blinked in confusion, looking around at the gray-clad soldiers.
I was still trying to make sense of the fear on their faces... when the entire group scattered back, fleeing the glass-rock gully. They ran in a disjointed mass, like animals trying to escape a hungry predator that’s leapt unexpectedly into their midst. I still knelt on the rocks as the soldiers began to fan out, initially knocking into one another in their urgency to get away. Their collective fear shot adrenaline through my limbs, pushing me to stumble back to my feet, even with the two hybrids bent over me.
Once I got vertical, I stared around, trying to discern the threat.
I felt nothing but a hot breeze that whipped my hair around my face and neck, stinging my cheeks.
Only the female hybrid didn't move.
The male straightened when I did, staring around with a calmer but equally urgent stare.
The female hybrid looked up, staring at my face as though I was a rare and valuable animal she wanted to stuff and mount on her wall.
I found my eyes kept returning to that flat gaze, even as I tried to figure out why all the scuba-suit soldiers ran way. I was still looking between her, the soldiers and the waving trees under the wind, when a sudden, sick feeling hit my stomach. When I looked at the woman, I remembered what Nihkil had said about her being a witch.
Then a shadow fell over all four of us, and my eyes shifted upwards.
A giant shape filled the space above the rock-strewn ravine.
Dark blue in color, its rounded edges confused me. They somehow made it look both like something man-made and something that came out of nature... not something alive, but more like a boulder, or maybe the side of a cliff. A set of thick wheels rotated on both sides, still high above the rocks and trees. Despite how far off the ground the thing was, it loomed large enough to blot out the sun and that purplish-blue sky.
A sudden, sharp cry jerked my eyes back to the ground.
Nihkil had tackled the tall woman with the orange eyes and white braids.
The woman was strong, though, and Nihkil's arms were still bound behind his back. I watched in stunned surprise as they struggled on the sharp rocks, still trying to wrap my head around that thing in the sky.
Then the hybrid started to overpower Nihkil.
She knelt on his chest, her hand on his shoulder, pinning him to the ground with the glass shard. He somehow managed to get his hands untied in those few seconds... but he still couldn't get the woman off him. I looked around for the male hybrid, but he stood a few dozen yards away now, near the trees. He stared up at the sky, without seeming to notice the scene he’d left behind.
When Nihkil cried out, I looked down. He writhed under her, trying to get free, but the hybrid woman held his wrist in long, spider-like fingers. Nihkil looked up at me, then, his eyes exuding a pale desperation.
He didn’t say what I’d expected him to say.
"Run!" he said. "Run now! The ship is help... they will find you!"
But I’d already fallen back to the ground, landing more or less on my hurt knees again. I ignored the pain, as well as the cuts and the torn stockings and my bruised feet and hands.
Instead, I scrabbled to get my fingers around the biggest piece of rock I could find.
I hefted it up with my bound hands, hesitating when I couldn’t decide how to avoid hitting Nihkil, whether or not I managed to hit the woman’s head. The sounds from above got louder as I hesitated, terrifyingly loud. The ground shook. It vibrated my head, my hands, my whole body. The shadow darkened, leaving us in a near-twilight on those rocks.
I looked up in that split-second, caught a bare glimpse of blue hull and yellow light, then that was gone, too. The roaring got louder.
The white face of the female hybrid looked up, too.
I saw my chance.
Jumping a half-step to make up for the low gravity, I kicked out, hard, using all of my weight as I aimed for the hybrid's shoulder.
It worked, sort of. My kick didn’t get her off Nihkil entirely, but managed to move her enough that Nihkil was out of my line of aim with the rock.
Before the orange-eyed woman could recover, I heaved that heavy glass stone at her head, grunting as it left my fingers.
The canyon fell into night.
The stone hit the skull-like head, knocking her sideways.
Watching me, Nihkil followed the motion, twisting as soon as the white fingers loosened around his wrists. He got out from under the hybrid, half-crawling to where I stood. I grabbed his arm once he was close enough and he cried out, startling me, but also reminding me of his injury.
Letting go, I looked down, and saw that, yes, it was the wrong arm.
"Hey," I mumbled, catching hold of his other hand. "Sorry."
The hybrid was already pulling herself to her feet.
Nihkil pulled me with him now, using his hands and part of his body to push and tug me up the hill, away from where the woman already staggered back to vertical.
I looked for the other hybrid and saw that it had retreated into the jungle, disappearing along with the gray-clad soldiers. I glimpsed his tattooed face right before he vanished altogether, sliding behind one of those tall, fern-like trees.
Meanwhile, Nihkil kept climbing the gully, staying with the steeper, narrow thread where it led up the hill behind us. I fought to keep up with his longer strides, and to keep my balance on the glass-like rocks in my boots, sliding and nearly falling only to have him grip me hard enough to keep me on my feet. He continued to tug me insistently behind him, breathing hard.
I saw his eyes flicker nervously between me, the cliffs, the hybrid herself... and the shadow overhead.
"You will never escape with her!" the hybrid called after us.
I turned around and saw those orange eyes shining out of the dark of that massive shape overhead.
"We will find you!" the hybrid said. "There is no distance far enough. Cooperate with us now... give her to us, and we will give you sanctuary. You will be freed. Unlocked...”
The wind rose, kicking up clouds of black sand.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard frantic shouts.
Staring up the slope, I realized that less time had passed than I’d thought.
Those guys in the scuba suits had already started to reform on the cliff. I saw more of those metal poles, and the older soldier shouting orders and pointing with his hands. They seemed to be regrouping for some kind of counterattack.
Nihkil moved slower now, mostly because we'd reached the steepest part of the gully. I could almost keep up with him now, but I was still having trouble keeping my balance on the rocks. I placed my feet carefully, not wanting to drag us both down.
Looking back over my shoulder, I watched the woman with the orange eyes follow us.
She’d already closed the gap a lot.
Too much, maybe.
In fact, as I watched her, she moved freakishly fast up that same stretch of sharp rocks. I found myself watching her fearfully once I realized she was gaining on us, irrationally afraid of her. She hadn’t really done anything to me, not yet.
Blood trickled in a thin line down her head from where I’d nailed her with the rock. The red blood looked shocking against those bone-white braids and the white skin of her face.
She took another leaping step towards us, and now Nihkil watched her, too, facing her even as he continued to walk backwards. She took another step and Nihkil tugged and pushed me behind him. He held me back there and at an angle, using his body to shield me from most of the cliffs, as well as the female hybrid herself.
"Stay back!" he said.
Nihkil held up his free hand, his voice harsh, even as he gasped for breath.
“Back!” he repeated. “Do not come closer!”
Realizing again that he was wounded, that he wasn't moving right, I wondered if I should be the one pulling him behind me up the hill, rather than the reverse.
"Help us," the orange-eyed woman said. "Morph, do not fight us. Help us. You know how important she is... how fragile. You know what they will do to her. Do you really want that blood on your hands? Help us now, and we will free you."
I felt Nihkil tense, as if warding off a blow I couldn’t see.
I gripped his fingers tighter, tugging him towards me, further up the steep slope. He looked paler now, too pale. His eyes darted around, still assessing options, still watching the three sides.
But I could feel his attention never really left the female hybrid.
“Nihkil!” I shouted, shaking his arm. “Come on! Let’s go!”
The hybrid took another step.
Nihkil moved back also, but not far enough. His hand felt clammy in mine now.
“Nik!” I said, louder.
He only seemed to hear the hybrid when she spoke.
"You belonged to Malek once, did you not, friend?" she purred. "I saw the mark... you were owned by us before, yes? Why not come home? We would make a place for you again. We would keep your family safe... and this one, too...” Her eyes turned shrewd, darting towards me. "We will even let you keep her... providing you do not damage her."
Nihkil’s fingers crushed mine, growing hotter still.
I yanked harder on his arm, grabbing his wrist with my other bound hand and pulling on him with all of my weight. The hybrid stood even closer to us now, maybe half as far as she had been. While trying to get the two of us up that steep segment of hill, I stumbled again. My knee met rock, too hard for me to ignore.
When I landed smack dab where I’d split the skin before, I cried out in pain.
For a moment, my cry seemed to snap Nihkil out.
With his help, I managed to pull myself back up, sucking in sand-filled breaths. By now, I was exhausted to the point of collapse, from adrenaline and fatigue and whatever else. My neck and spine felt like they’d been fused together. Even so, I forced my limbs faster, fighting for traction in the sinking black sand that now replaced most of the glass-like rocks.
That time, Nihkil’s long legs matched mine. He began to push me to go faster, instead of the reverse, leaning his body to compensate for the steep angle.
Dropping the pretense, and the attempts to bargain, the hybrid began to run up the hill towards us, low to the ground, her gaunt form bent in the wind to meet the angle of the slope. She was closing the distance when a mechanized-sounding voice rained down from the hovering shadow overhead.
When it did, the skull-faced woman hesitated, looking back.
Then she took another step.
Light flashed from overhead.
It blew a hole in the middle of the woman’s chest from behind.
Totally unprepared for that, I shrieked, more startled than appalled. The wind tore the cry from my mouth.
The female hybrid’s body hovered, blank eyed, just before it fell.
Lights continued to flash from the hovering shadow, chasing the soldiers in gray uniforms further back into the trees. Those lights blew holes in the cliff face above us, knocking over trees, setting some on fire. Explosions rocked some higher part of the ridge, where I couldn’t see.
Not long after that, black smoke mushroomed up towards the sky.
I watched the smoke bloom upwards, even as another staccato pattern of flashing lights erupted from the hovering ship.
Still coughing sand, I dragged Nihkil out of the gully.
I was trying to get us under cover, aiming for the undergrowth on the lower part of the ridge. Tall fern trees whipped in the wind a dozen yards from where we climbed, but at least from there, I reasoned, we wouldn’t be seen.
I tried again to get some idea of what hovered over that gully.
Five times the breadth of any cargo or navy plane I’d ever seen, the ridged, boulder-like shadow hovered as if on invisible rails, girded by rotating rings. Fire erupted from a side portal as I watched, rippling the sky.
As I stared, the voice from the ship's underbelly thundered again.
That time it was loud... so loud it hurt my ears. I gasped, covering one ear with a bound hand. Fingers caught my elbow then, and I shrieked, startled.
But it was only Nihkil.
He looked at me, his black hair whipping in the wind.
For a moment we only stared at one another.
He looked as if he wanted to speak, as if he had something to say, but after a few breaths, that feeling in him seemed to grow dim. He removed his hand.
"Do not be afraid," he said.
Again, his lips didn't move right for his words, and again, I wondered how it was he spoke to me at all, given all this.
“...It is here for us," he added.
I studied his battered face, only half-hearing him. When the ship bellowed louder, I turned back to look at the sky. Another gust of wind filled my nose with black sand.
"Is that a good thing?" I said finally, holding my hair in one hand, trying to keep it out of the wind and failing. It continued to sting and whip my face as I looked at him.
His fingers tightened on my wrist, pulling me closer.
"She was right," he said only. "It will not be safe for you with them, either."
"Why?" I said. "Are you going to tell me?"
His face grew pained.
"Did you close the door?" he said. "It is bad that you came here. You should have stayed behind... but I must know. Did you close it?"
I stared at his oddly-changing eyes, watching them turn from a pale gray to a darker, almost ocean-green. He was barely standing, I realized. I still didn’t understand most of what he’d said, what it meant, but now was clearly not the time to get into it with him.
Anyway, I was pretty sure he'd just saved my life.
Again.
I squeezed his fingers, trying to reassure him.
“It’ll be all right,” I said.
"No," he said. "It won't."
I stared around at the waving trees, feeling my jaw harden. A glimpse of sunlight filtered between billowing clouds.
Nodding, I gripped his hand tighter.
“All right,” I said. “Then it won’t.”
8
AN OBJECT CLAIMED
WE MADE OUR way slowly down the cliff again, in spite of what Nik told me.
As we di
d, the shadow descended, broken by the flashing of lights like flickering eyes.
Trees on the cliffs above cracked and broke like matchsticks under the ship’s weight. A green-gray appendage descended from the ship’s hull, then connected wetly with a portion of the river of glass rocks.
Once we reached the bottom of the gully, we stopped.
Nihkil leaned against a boulder next to me.
Eyes glazed, he breathed too much. He clutched my fingers in his good hand, having tugged me closer to him again, at some point after we arrived there.
He didn't let go.
Neither did I, for that matter, although I couldn't have said why exactly.
I half-expected him to pass out, so maybe that was part of it. Despite how I felt myself, I had to admit, he looked worse. I wasn't sure what I’d do if he did pass out. Now that he sat so close, I really got a good look at how big he was.
Not just his height, although he was tall, yeah.
Somehow, the density of his body made him look heavy, too.
Even as I thought it, his grip tightened on my fingers. Realizing what he wanted, I wedged my boots against the rock, leveraging my weight to help as he dragged himself upright.
The elephant’s trunk appendage lit up.
It probably should have weirded me out more than it did.
Maybe I was too tired to care.
Or maybe my mind kept replaying his last words to me, about how I wouldn’t be safe with these people, either. Whatever the reason, I found myself staring at the ship and its odd accessories without being able to muster a lot of shock and awe.
I watched as an opening melted through one cylindrical wall of that same appendage.
It happened fast, like a match to plastic and with a surprising lack of fanfare.
With an equal lack of fanfare, six beings strode out, four of them wearing the same black, scuba-type outfits that Nihkil wore himself. Branch-like protrusions wound out from the forearms and elbows of those same four in uniform, attached to their wrists with featureless coils. Metal, tube-like ends protruded past the ends of their fingers.
I guessed those things on their arms had to be weapons, from the way they held them.
I glanced at Nihkil, and saw his eyes on the weapon-things, too.
The Morph (Gate Shifter Book One) Page 8