The Black Sky

by Michael Dalton

  Phareewee sighed.

  “She has been my primary representative in Phan-garad. She is strong, imaginative, and resourceful in ways that continue to amaze me. Were she not my daughter I would agree to this in an instant. She would make you a fine wife, and a worthy member of this inner circle. I simply do not wish to place her at risk.”

  I looked back at Mereceeree, thinking for the first time about having her as a wife. She was tiny, even smaller than Narilora, but she had the same fierce aura about her, like she was someone you would cross at your peril. Someone you wanted on your side if you could manage it.

  The one thing I didn’t have amongst my circle of wives was a spy. Someone who could tell me the things I needed to know, without anyone else knowing about it. And she was just as hot as the other five – exotic like Kisarat, sly yet fierce like Merindra, the same sculpted face as Ayarala, and, I suspected, just as lusty as Eladra, judging from the way they were sitting together now, like new best friends.

  “I will claim her, if you agree to it.”

  “I do not wish it, but she will ignore my wishes in any case. So I agree to it.”

  “Then I agree to the rest of your offer. The wives I have placed in charge of managing the household, specifically the mating, can make this work.”

  “Do they include your cunelo over there?”

  “They do. Her and another.”

  “Then we are agreed.”

  Phareewee sat up.

  “Mereceeree.”

  Her daughter stood and came around the fire pit toward us. Eladra came around the other side and sat next to me.

  I stood.

  “I claim you as wife.”

  She laughed. Wind-chimes made of glass.

  “Makalang. What makes you think I can be claimed so easily?”

  I laughed back at her.

  “I think you’re someone who will come and go as you like, who will take instructions very badly, and who will stir up unnecessary drama among my other wives. I also think you’re someone who will die in the defense of those same wives, who will go far out of your way in support of my interests, and who will not hesitate to destroy what you believe to be threats against us. I also think . . . you have devoted a great deal of thought to one specific element of the legend of the makalang.”

  Mereceeree gasped softly. Her yellow eyes swelled. She bit her lip for a moment. Then she answered me.

  “You are truly the makalang. I will serve you, Will of Hawthorne.” She took a deep breath. “My body is yours.”

  Eladra let out a little squeak of delight and hugged her.

  “Welcome, awasa-late.”

  Mereceeree laughed, and after a moment, hugged her back.

  “But I’m going to need you to wear clothes,” I said, “some of the time.”

  Mereceeree laughed.

  “Lead me, tsulygoi. Just . . . lead me to bed.”

  ◆◆◆

  I checked on Narilora. One of the panikang was with her.

  “She sleeps. But her energy is returning. It will take time.”

  I knelt next to her, scratching her ears. She was breathing slowly. I bent down and kissed her.

  “Come back to me, pussy-cat,” I whispered.

  ◆◆◆

  I returned to the house the panikang had given us. Rather than Mereceeree donning any clothes, Eladra had removed hers. Both of them were waiting for me in bed.

  I disrobed as they watched. When I slid my shorts down, I could see Mereceeree’s eyes widening. Eladra laughed.

  “I told you.”

  I went to them, pulling them together against me. But Eladra only let me kiss and fondle her breasts for a few moments before pushing me away.

  “Her first, Will. When she is sated, take me. I will wait.”

  So I turned to Mereceeree. She was the inverse of Ayarala, who was so pale. My eyes just fell into her. Her skin was not the matte black of gorillas and chimps I had seen in the zoo. It was glossy yet somehow translucent, like living obsidian. She was half my size, and I could almost hold her entire body in my arms. Her breasts were small but rounded, enough to take into my hands, and her nipples were like pomegranate seeds. I sucked on them until she was writhing and moaning against me.

  I rolled over, lifting her over me and pulling her hips to my face. She gasped aloud as I thrust my tongue into her. Her small furred tail twitched against my wrists as I wrapped my arms around her thighs. I reached into her energy as I had done so many times with my other wives.

  But it was different. The crystal was in the room, with the clothes and gear I had discarded on the floor. Mere feet away, I realized I could use it to channel what I was doing to her.

  And now, through the crystal that had been waiting for me for a hundred kumala-talons, I could see everything with absolute clarity, could see exactly what I was doing to Mereceeree – far better than she could see herself. I could see how our energies – mine, hers, and Eladra’s next to me – connected to the larger energy of Taitala. And I had an epic revelation.

  I had been brought here to foster intelligent life. Every makalang before me – and there had been countless others, not merely twenty-six – had been brought here for the same reason. But I was different.

  And I saw, at last, the truth.

  I would be the last. Taitala had exhausted her energy in drawing me here, to this planet orbiting the binary system of Alpha Centauri. The connection to Earth, the closest planet that had also birthed life, was fraying. At both ends. This was a female planet, and unless I found a way to establish the other half of that equation, everything here was going to die.

  Mereceeree screamed in release. I saw the incandescent energy of her orgasm swirling around us. I lifted her up and tossed her to the bed beside Eladra. She opened her legs as I crawled above her. As small as she was, I had to be gentle. But I’d loosened her up, and I knew how to do this now. I pushed forward slowly, feeling her membrane break, feeling her muscles relaxing around me. She groaned, wrapping her arms and leathery wings around my chest. When I had filled her completely, when I felt her almost painful tightness around me, I bent down to kiss her.

  She had pointed canines like Narilora and Merindra. She didn’t seem to know what to do, but she followed my lead. I began moving inside her, again feeling exactly what she felt, seeing what I was doing to her. And I drove her quickly to another orgasm until her back arched and her small nails dug into my back. Then I released the brakes and rode her slim body until I exploded deep inside her.

  “Makalang,” she gasped.

  I took her again, this time with Eladra joining us. Then I took Eladra until she was weak and dizzy and I had my fill of her lush body. Then we slept, holding each other close. My circle was complete.

  Chapter 13

  Mereceeree slipped away during the night but returned just before dawn, cuddling in against me and under my arm, pressing her tight little butt against my morning wood.

  “Is this how it’s going to be?” I mumbled.

  “Yes, my love. You claimed a panikang.”

  She saw the look on my face.

  “I have loved you from afar since you came to Phan-garad. But I was not brave enough to approach you for some time. You don’t know how my heart sang when I heard you call out for me that night.” She kissed me. “I know in time you will look at me like you look at Eladra and Narilora. I will wait, and simply be happy that I have you at last. Now let me sleep.”

  She rolled over, snuggling under the blanket.

  “Okay, bat-girl.”

  I cuddled against her, burying my face in her tawny hair, and tried to get a bit more sleep myself.

  Yet sleep refused to return, because something from the previous night began nagging at me. I had not forgotten that I had another family back on Earth, my daughter Cassie and my son Hunter. Even if they had been fathered by my unfaithful ex-wife’s lover, I was the only father they knew. Since arriving on Taitala, I had been torn between wanting to get back to them somehow
and not wanting to leave the new love and family I’d created here.

  But all of that was contingent on the idea that I could get back to them and take up where I’d left off. From my perspective, I’d been here maybe two months. At worst, that made me a missing person, since no body would have been found.

  The problem now was that I knew where I was, and I knew what that meant. I was four light years away from Earth. Assuming the energies on Taitala had drawn me here as some kind of electromagnetic radiation, I would have traveled at light speed and experienced the trip as instantaneous.

  It also meant four years had passed on Earth. Cassie would now be ten and Hunter seven. Jacqueline had – almost certainly – long since told them that her husband Richard was their real father. She’d been pushing me to let them do it before I’d even disappeared. And if I ever found a way back? It would mean a nine-year absence at least, the kids would barely even remember me, and I would be the one trying to break up what they considered to be their family.

  As much as it hurt, the truth of it was staring me in the face with the merciless reality of physics.

  I hated it. I didn’t want to accept it. But unless I found some way to reverse what had happened to me, I was stuck with it.

  ◆◆◆

  When I finally got up, I went to check on Narilora. She was still asleep, and the panikang sitting with her in the darkness told me she was recovering slowly. I checked her with the crystal, seeing it. Her energy had grown, but less than I had hoped.

  I went back to our house. Mereceeree was fast asleep and would, I assumed, sleep through the day. Eladra was up, puttering around in the kitchen. Then I noticed that my crystal tablet was blinking slowly, which meant someone had tried to call, even though Ayarala had said she wouldn’t.

  I called back. Instead of Ayarala, Merindra answered. For a moment, I thought it was just the lighting, but I realized her eyes were red and her face was sterner and angrier than I’d ever seen it.

  “Will, something has happened,” she said.

  “What? What’s going on?”

  She tried to explain. Earlier that morning, Loreloo sent another group of cunelo to the house, this time accompanied by a squad of guards. But the crowd, which had grown increasingly resistive in my absence and the delay in another “selection,” refused to let them through. The guards tried to force their way past anyway. There was a struggle, pushing and shoving. Exactly what happened, my wives were not sure, but weapons were drawn, and a fight began. My linyang and sorai guards came out to try to drive away the cunelo, and the two groups faced off. One linyang was dead, as were two cunelo. Altogether, at least a dozen people had been killed, mostly girls in the crowd cut down by the cunelo guards in the initial fight.

  I felt my stomach sinking as I listened. This was bad, really bad.

  “Are the rest of you okay, at least?”

  Merindra closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to collect herself, then answered me.

  “Lorelat . . .”

  Oh no.

  “What –”

  “They took her, Will. The cunelo took her. She was out there talking to the crowd when they arrived. She’d been trying to keep them calm, to explain what you were doing. When the fighting started, she tried to stop it. But the cunelo recognized her and grabbed her.”

  “You’re sure they took her?”

  “Yes! She was screaming to us, ‘Tell him they took me! I didn’t leave! They’re taking me!’"

  My vision narrowed into a red fog of rage. My sweet, lovable Lorelat, who only ever wanted to be a bunny-mom. If they had hurt her –

  But then I realized that of course they wouldn’t. They needed her, her and our child. But that also meant that unless I did something, I might never see her again.

  I told Merindra we would head back as soon as we could, though I wasn’t sure how. I told her to keep the house locked down as tightly as possible – nothing in or out, and to contact me if there were any messages from the clan leaders.

  She nodded rapidly.

  “We’re already there, Will. Meridrian doubled the guard and put crossbows up on the second-floor balcony. I don’t know what else could happen, but we’re ready for it.”

  Meridrian was the captain of the guard, one of the linyang I’d inherited from ajia’Jara.

  “Okay. Good. Sit tight until I get back.”

  Eladra had come to sit next to me as I was talking to Merindra. When I hung up, she was motionless, face in her hands, ears limp, breathing raggedly.

  “We will get her back,” I said. “Count on it.”

  All she could do was nod.

  ◆◆◆

  But what was I going to do? We were days away from Phan-garad. So much could happen before we got back, even if we left at once. And Narilora wasn’t ready to travel anywhere – I knew that.

  I went upstairs and gently woke up Mereceeree, apologizing for having to do it. Then I explained the situation as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

  “Do you remember what I told you, when you arrived here?” she asked.

  It took me a moment.

  “That you would tell me your secrets after we mated,” I said.

  “We have mated. And this is a secret. We can return to Phan-garad, right now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, we can be in Phan-garad in an instant. You have the strength, just not the skills. I will show you.”

  She donned a long cloak to cover her eyes and went to wake her mother. We explained the situation. Phareewee agreed we should return to Phan-garad. But she also insisted that Narilora was in no shape to accompany us.

  “This method will bathe all of you in intense energy, from the crystals it uses to work. She will not survive that. It is impossible for her to come with you now.”

  I sighed. I didn’t like it, but I knew she was right.

  “We will care for her. If she awakes in time, and is well, we may be able to bring her to you. But you should go.”

  Once we gathered our gear, leaving Narilora’s behind, Mereceeree reappeared at our house. She still wore the cloak but now also had a bandolier of slim crystal knives across her chest and two short blades strapped to her thighs.

  “I’m going to assume you know how to use those.”

  “What you said to me, last night, when you claimed me? About not hesitating to destroy threats against you and our family?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were correct.”

  She led us to another building in the circle. This one was taller and narrower than the others. The interior was a single open space reaching fifty feet up. On the floor was a circle formed from small crystals mounted in stone.

  “This is how we come and go from Phan-garad unseen. There is one of these circles there, hidden carefully away in the outskirts of the city. Hold your focus crystal out and step into it.”

  I did. She followed me, as did Eladra.

  “Close your eyes. Concentrate on your focus. You should feel something. Another circle. Take care to do nothing until I tell you.”

  I did. In my mind, I saw the circle in Phan-garad. And I saw a sort of tunnel leading there.

  “Do you see it?”

  “Yes. And the tunnel.”

  “Try to form a bubble around us, then push it into tunnel.”

  It was slippery, at first. Then we were flowing toward the other circle. I felt nothing. But when I opened my eyes, we were no longer in the tower. We stood in an almost pitch-dark room.

  “Are we there?”

  “We are. Your strength is impressive. I cannot take three people at once so easily.”

  I found my flashlight. We were in an empty room. Mereceeree led us through a door and out into a hallway where there was more light, then into a room where the floor had collapsed. I could see down to the ground.

  “There is a bit of a challenge here,” she said. “To prevent the circle from being found, we destroyed the stairs and any way of climbing up. We can fly
up and down, but you must lower yourselves.”

  Fortunately, I’d brought the rope, so it was relatively easy to lower Eladra, then slide down myself. Mereceeree untied the rope and glided down to join us.

  It was the first time I’d clearly seen her fly, and I was a bit startled by how she did it. I’d seen and felt the flaps of skin under her arms, and they were mostly recessed against her armpits. So I’d assumed she just had some kind of natural wing-suit. But when she glided down to us, she unfolded her wings from under her arms. What looked like a strip of cartilage folded out from her forearm, stretching the flap of skin into a taut bat wing. It wasn’t anything like a wing-suit. She had actual wings.

  She swooped gracefully down and landed beside us.

  “Neat trick,” I said.

  She laughed,

  “We have many, my tsulygoi.”

  “Where to now?”

  “It is a bit of a walk, but there are ways to get there that will hide us.”

  She led us into an alley outside, and we began walking between and around a lot of ruined, abandoned buildings.

  “That tunnel, the way I transported us here, that has to be related to how I came here. How all the makalangs came.”

  “Many believe so. But we have no way of knowing for sure.”

  ◆◆◆

  The Phan-garad maglev trolley system didn’t run through this area of the city, and I wasn’t about to take Mereceeree on it anyway. So we had to walk back. For about an hour, we slipped through the back alleys, seeing almost no one. But as we approached the city center, we were increasingly having to cut across busier streets. Things seemed even quieter than normal, but I was still on edge.

  Just as we reached the city center, and I saw our residential area about a block away, we came out of an alley and around a corner – and ran right into a group of Long Claw linyang. We and they both stopped short on the street. There were six of them, all armed with their trademark short swords and crossbows.

  I looked immediately at Mereceeree. She was completely shrouded by her cloak, but that in itself was suspicious. Eladra stepped in front of her.

  But the linyang focused on me.