"No!" Ninsianna shouted into the darkness. "I will not journey there!"
In her dream, the ebony-skinned woman arose from her bed, reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out several pieces of fruit. She placed the fruit at the edge of the darkness, and then backed away. A green clawed arm reached out of the darkness and grabbed the fruit.
Was the fruit an offering to a guardian?
The night lanterns began to grow brighter, as if a magic spell had been cast upon them to come up slowly the same way that the sun did. Ninsianna blinked and realized she was not asleep, but that at some point she had woken up and caused her dream to merge into reality. The dark place where the ebony-skinned woman had made the offering wasn't a pathway, but the alcove where the lizard soldier lay hidden beneath the blanket. The scent of fruit filled the room, as though somebody had just bitten into a pomegranate.
She crawled over to the edge of her bunk and reached across to touch the ebony-skinned woman's hand. The woman recoiled from her, her mantras growing louder as she scooted further away. Ninsianna retreated back to her side of the low barrier which separated their bunks in defeat. All around her, the other women, every one of them insane, got up out of their bunks and made their way into the bathroom to relieve themselves. The noise within the room grew louder as the cacophony of insane women uttering yowls and hisses made her want to put her hands over her ears. Which was worse? Nightmares about the dark place? Or the reality she found herself in now?
The door to the outside world burst open.
"Sooo-weee!" a beige-winged Angelic called out. "Time for breakfast!"
The Evil One!
Ninsianna's heart pounded so fast she thought it might burst. The other women screamed and rushed to the opposite side of the room, some diving into their bunks to cringe and hiss as two Angelics came through the door wheeling a cart filled with food.
Ninsianna flattened her back against the wall, praying the two Angelics would not see her. Terror mixed with an odd sense of familiarity as she recognized the same traits she'd once thought breathtaking in her husband, the winged ones great height, their pale skin, their chiseled features and straight, aquiline noses, but even more than that she trembled at the differences … white feathers and blonde hair.
"Any of them shit in the corner today?" the Angelic wearing a green shirt asked.
"Not yet," the red-speckled Angelic said. "Usually they do that after they've eaten."
"Kinda like us, hey Ruax?" the green-shirted one asked. "Get up in the morning, have a nice big cup of caife, and Aaaah! Twenty minutes later you take a nice, big dump!"
"You're gross, Procel!" the red-speckled Ruax said. "How do you expect to woo any of the new ones Lucifer's been bringing on board if you talk like that to them."
"Oh?" the green-shirted Procel laughed. "Like you've had any better luck than me?" Procel gestured to where the women huddled, terrified, as far away from them as they possibly could. "They run from you just as fast as they run from me!"
Ninsianna strained to translate their words. She'd been given her gift of tongues so soon after she'd met Mikhail that she'd come to take for granted her grasp of his native language. Like any gift which had come easily without effort, once that gift was taken away, her own mental muscles were weak and she had to strain to understand what the men were saying. Yes, she could understand them because she had learned Mikhail's language the old-fashioned way, but it made her feel as though someone took a bone needle and poked it into her eye.
The two Angelics wiped down the table which still had fruit peelings and crumbs strewn about it from last night, talking as if none of the women could understand the insults they piled upon them.
"Do you think it would be too much for these dimwits to use a plate and fork?" Ruax flared his red-speckled wings with irritation. "I sure hope the one he gives me at least knows how to shit in a toilet."
"I'd just be happy if one of them just made eye contact with me," Procel said. He lifted a huge platter piled with breadstuffs onto the table, then a moment later a second tray piled with fruit. "Do you think, maybe if we treat them a little better than Lucifer did these gals, that maybe they won't be so, you know, broken?"
Ruax glanced at the door, as if ensuring it was really shut.
"Don't let Zepar overhear you talking like that," Ruax said. "Or he'll have you disappeared."
"Lerajie says…"
"Lerajie is going to get shot out an airlock one of these days," Ruax said. "The only reason it hasn't happened, yet, is because then they'd have to get rid of Eligor, and Eligor is the only one the puppet prince trusts."
The two finished piling trays onto the table, then one of them pulled out a broom and began to sweep the floor. Ninsianna was tempted to ask if they knew the fate of her husband, but that voice of caution she'd refused to listen to earlier when she'd followed Shahla into a trap urged her to watch and wait. Right now they had no idea she understood them, which was surprising because the Evil One had known full well she could speak Galactic Standard. However, having been privy to her father's counsel to Chief Kiyan, this wasn't the first time the top hadn't communicated an important fact to the men doing the dirty work at the bottom.
Like the fact She-who-is had warned her about a white-winged Angelic…
Ninsianna pushed the guilt out of her mind and tried to look at the situation the way she knew Mikhail would. She was unarmed … and pregnant. Direct confrontation was unwise. It would be wiser to watch, listen, and gather information before they realized they might be divulging things she could use to engineer her escape.
The two men moved into the bathroom, cursing and joking about the other women's unwillingness to flush the toilet. Ninsianna winced at the sound of the toilets flushing in rapid succession. It was an obnoxious sound, but as Mikhail had explained the concept of the running water, so the experience was not terrifying for her.
Procel walked out and brushed his forearm against his brow, careful to avoid touching his face with his large, bright blue gloves.
"How's the new one doing?" Ruax's voice streamed out of the bathroom from behind him.
Procel made eye contact with her. Ninsianna's heart slowed. The Angelic had blue eyes like her husband. She pressed her back into the wall behind her bunk, gathering her blanket around her as if somehow that could protect her if the man came at her to hurt her.
Procel frowned.
"Same as all the others, I guess," Procel said. He stepped closer to her. "Didn't you say Lucifer didn't touch this one yet?"
"Not that I know of," Ruax's voice filtered out the bathroom with a bit of a hollow-sounding echo. "Unless he did something to her down on the planet. But by the looks of her, she's already four or five months along."
"Why would he take one who was already pregnant?" Procel asked.
The toilet flushed one more time. Ruax walked out of the bathroom, preening his wings, and stared across the room at her as well. Blue eyes. Did all Angelics bear these traits except for the Evil One? Ninsianna trembled at the memory of those horrid, silver eyes.
Procel reached towards her. "Hey … it's okay. We won't hurt you."
Ninsianna stared at him, owl-eyed, ready to jump up and run away, though where she'd go she had no idea. All around her the cacophony of the other women had grown louder.
"She can't understand you," Ruax snorted with disgust. "She's nothing but a stupid little brood animal."
Ninsianna bit her tongue. Hadn't she run away from Jamin for possessing that exact same attitude? She found it hard to believe her husband had come from the same species as these two jackals!
Procel walked up to stand in front of her bunk. He reached up to her, his expression more curious than malignant.
"Maybe Lucifer will give me this one," Procel said. "After he's, I don't know, finished with her? She's kind of pretty."
He reached out to touch her arm.
With a shriek, Ninsianna threw her pillow at him and crawled over the low foot-rail in
to the bed of the ebony-skinned woman. The woman retreated further back into her bunk, but she did not hiss at her the way the other women would have done.
"See," Ruax said. "What'd I tell you? They're all stupid."
"She doesn't look too stupid to me," Procel said. He stepped on the bottom bunk and reached across the bed at her. The ebony-skinned woman shrieked and made her finger symbols even faster, muttering ibilisi, ibilisi, ibilisi.
With a sudden jerk, Procel lurched forward and grabbed her arm.
"Get your filthy hands off of me!" Ninsianna shrieked in Ubaid.
She kicked him in the face.
Procel fell backwards, his feathers flying everywhere as he beat his wings to catch his balance. Ruax roared with laughter as Procel landed flat on his back.
The ebony-skinned woman grabbed Ninsianna by the arm and yanked her along with her as she skittered off the bed and ran…
"No!" Ninsianna shrieked as she realized where the ebony-skinned woman was taking her.
Ruax fluttered across the room, his hand outstretched to grab her.
The ebony-skinned woman tugged her into the alcove to stand behind the massive shape hidden beneath the blanket.
"C'mon, get her," Procel rolled forward and got up, his expression a mixture of anger and curiosity. "She just spoke to me!"
The green tail that stuck out of the blanket moved.
"You must have been imagining things," Ruax laughed. "Humans aren't sentient until Zepar jacks them up with that mojo of his!"
"Naw, she talked!" Procel said. "Really. She did. Help me catch her and let's see if we can get her to do it again."
Procel flared his wings. The ebony-skinned woman shrieked and dove behind the monster that lay behind the blanket, crouching in terror on the floor. Both men stepped towards her, their hands outstretched. Never had Ninsianna ever thought she'd see her husband's species as the enemy.
Like a mountain that had been suddenly awoken, a shape rose up from beneath the blanket, larger, even than the two Angelics, and cast it off, terrible to behold. The lizard demon was eight cubits tall, broader than an Angelic by half, with a sharp dorsal ridge which reared up on top of his head like a fish's fin. His flesh was green and patterned like a snake, and out of his hands jutted long, sharp claws.
Ninsianna screamed.
The monster bared its fangs and licked the air with a terrible, long forked tongue.
"Ssshheee told you to get your handsss off of her!" the monster hissed at the two Angelics in a heavily accented version of their own language.
"Whoa!" Procel leaped back. "Guess who's awake?"
The ebony-skinned woman's chanting grew louder, but she did not budge from where she crouched behind the lizard demon. She was afraid of him, but she was absolutely terrified of the two Angelics.
"Shit!" Ruax fumbled at his thigh for his pulse rifle, which was strapped securely in its holster.
The monster slapped his tail against the floor and puffed out his dorsal ridge so it reared up even further, but it stepped no closer to the two Angelics, nor did it step backwards to move closer to her. It stood there, a solid green wall between her and the two men. Ruax got his pulse rifle out of his holster while Procel grabbed a large spoon from the bowl of cut-up vegetables and held it in front of him like a sword, but neither creature stepped closer to the other.
"Lose your skirt, lizard?" Ruax pointed to the blanket on the ground.
"Aw, man, forget about him," Procel tugged at Ruax. "Look at him! Even if he does survive, Shay'tan's going to execute him for spilling the coordinates to Earth."
The two Angelics backed up to grab the rolling cart they'd used to wheel the food into the room. Ninsianna pressed her back into the wall of the alcove, not sure whether she was safer here, or out with the other women where the two Angelics could manhandle her.
"Why isn't that guy dead, already?" Ruax said as he tugged Procel out of the room.
"Eh," Procel said. "He serves a purpose. At least the women stopped shitting in that alcove."
The two men chattered as they shut the door behind them. As soon as the door closed, the lizard creature leaned against the wall and slowly collapsed down onto the floor.
Ninsianna stared at the creature, not sure what she was supposed to do. Here she was, face to face with one of the demons which inhabited her nightmares, and instead of hurting her, this one had helped her.
She looked to the ebony-skinned woman for guidance, but the mind-damaged woman could provide none. Whatever had been done to these women, it had left them with enough of their faculties to survive, but little more. The dark-fleshed beauty, however, seemed to be a bit more intact than the other women, who descended upon the table, shrieking and fighting like hyenas fighting over a carcass, the moment the two Angelics vacated the room.
With a groan, the creature grabbed the blanket and pulled it over itself, shivering. Ninsianna didn't know much about lizard demon physiology, but even she could see the creature's color was more grey than green, the dull look to his eyes, and disheveled look of his uniform that spoke less of being slept in and more of having been in some kind of scuffle. The creature retracted his claws and whimpered. All of its fingers were bent in unnatural directions. It must have hurt like the devil for it to extend its claws to stand in her defense.
Ninsianna stared at her enemy. No. This creature was Mikhail's enemy. But now that she'd seen how his own people treated her people, first Lucifer, and now the two Angelics, she had to question what little her husband remembered. Perhaps he was good, but thus far, well, everything she'd assumed was now open for re-interpretation.
"Hello?" Ninsianna held out her hand. "I'm … um … thank you?"
"You're welcome," the lizard man hissed. His eyes were large and gold-green like any lizard on Earth, but through the slits she could see the creature was intelligent.
"I can, um," Ninsianna stammered. "I'm a bit of a healer, you know? Maybe there's something I can do to help you?"
The lizard creature sighed and shut his eyes. "He was right, you know."
"Who?"
"Ruax."
"About what?" Ninsianna asked.
With a groan that sounded more as if it an emotional wound rather than a physical pain, the lizard man leaned its head back against the wall. As he did, Ninsianna saw that the black streaks on its neck and wrists were not natural skin markings, but burns.
"Even if I do survive," the lizard man said, "I have betrayed my Emperor and god. My family will be cast out into the street and my wife assigned as punishment to marry the lowest-ranking street sweeper in the Empire. I am worth more to her dead."
"That's a terrible thing to say!" Ninsianna said.
The lizard-man did not answer, merely began to shudder as if he was having trouble breathing.
"Sir?" Ninsianna asked. "Are you okay?"
The creature opened its large, gold-green eyes and Ninsianna realized he was crying.
"She's sitting on a clutch of eggs, you know?" the lizard man said. "I'll never even get to see them born."
"Who?" Ninsianna asked.
"My wife," Apausha said. He shut his eyes again. "I finally served the Empire long enough to be gifted a wife, and the first thing I did when they tortured me was betray them."
"We'll get out of here," Ninsianna said. "We will."
"How?" the lizard man asked.
Ninsianna had no answer, so instead she told him what she hoped.
"My husband will come and rescue me."
The lizard-man's mouth curved upwards in a wistful smile which was surprisingly human-looking for a lizard.
"That would be nice," the lizard said. From his expression, Ninsianna knew he did not believe her.
There was a moment of silence. The ebony-skinned woman got up and walked over to the table where the other women squabbled over pickings for this morning's meal. Ninsianna expected her to have to fight for her food the same way everyone else did, but they stepped aside, allowed her to take the choicest p
ieces of fruit and carry them over to place in front of the lizard man. Even mind-damaged, the ebony-skinned woman had the wherewithal to make friends with the scariest monster in the room.
Perhaps she should do the same?
"What's your name?" Ninsianna asked.
"Apausha," the lizard said. "Lieutenant Apausha, a pilot in the Sata'anic Merchant Marine." He leaned his head back and sighed. "And I must confess, before you take pity on me as she has," he pointed to the ebony-skinned woman, "that I am the man responsible for delivering these women into Lucifer's hands."
~ * ~ * ~
Chapter 23
November: 3,390 BC
Earth: Village of Assur
Mikhail
Pain radiated out of his chest. The only thing which mattered was each painful breath and the reason he fought to take each breath, the small hand which lay safely ensconced within his. Shuddering breath out. Small breath in. Each breath aggravated the place Needa had pulled out the knife. How long had he been out? Someone had covered the window with a cloth to keep the chill out, but from the way the sun failed to shine directly through the weave, it had already moved to the other side of the house. Late afternoon, he suspected.
"Ninsianna?" He reached to touch her hair, hidden beneath the red hood of her favorite cape. Stupid cape! If not for that cape…
"I am here." Her voice shuddered with the dulcet undertone of tears.
He tried to roll onto his side so he could face her, but his own weakness, paired with the clumsy way his wings scrunched awkwardly beneath him, thwarted his efforts, leaving nothing but pain stabbing through his chest. He tried not to whimper, but he must have because Ninsianna rose and pulled her hand out of his.
"Let me tell Mama you're awake. It's time to change your dressings."
Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 25