Aquilla slipped down the couch until his body stretched the length of it. His arm still shielded his eyes from the light. The gentle tide of breathing filled the room, and bodies covered the floor from the front door to all four walls.
Penelope Ann grabbed Anna by the elbow and spun her around. “Go!” she hissed. She propelled her toward the store room.
Anna didn’t hesitate. She hurried around the house and took hold of the bar across the door. She lifted it silently, but nothing could wake those men up from the influence of Piwaka’s sleeping drug.
The door creaked when she pushed it open. There stood Menlo in the same strong, straight, alert posture. His eyes flashed when she opened the door, and he brandished the weapon, but he relaxed when he saw her. “It’s you.”
Anna rushed into the room. She took his hand. “Come on. We don’t have much time.”
Chapter 14
Menlo didn’t ask any questions. Anna led him out of the store room into the night. The aurora lit the sky. She glanced both ways, but there was no one in sight, not even Penelope Ann. Anna’s heart sank. She would never get a chance to say good-bye. Penelope Ann had done her part. Now she had to protect herself by keeping her distance from Anna and Menlo.
Anna hurried to the edge of the balcony and started across the bridge to the next platform. She hadn’t taken more than three steps when Menlo’s hand slipped from her grasp.
She turned back. “What’s the matter?”
He peered down at the branch under her feet. “Will this thing hold me?”
She laughed and took his hand again. “It’s strong enough to hold Aquilla and Piwaka and every other adult male Avitras. It will hold you, too. Just don’t look down. Come on.”
She tripped across and beckoned to him to follow. He hesitated another moment. Then he took a deep breath and started walking. He didn’t look down, and he didn’t stop moving. Once he got out onto the branch, he found his balance and crossed with no trouble.
“That’s the hard part over with,” Anna told him. “Now all we have to do is climb.”
“I’m trusting you,” he breathed.
“I’ll help you,” she told him. “It’s a long way down, so don’t lose your nerve halfway. I’ll be right with you. Just keep going until you reach the ground.”
She swung her legs over the side of the platform and groped for the hand and foot holds in the bark. She held herself in position on the trunk until Menlo’s legs appeared over the side of the platform. She held on with one hand and guided his feet into the clefts of the footholds.
Once he stabilized himself, he found his own way down onto the trunk. She started climbing, but she waited for him so many times the climb took much longer than usual. Halfway down, his breathing strained and he missed his footing a few times, but he didn’t stop. Anna paused, but he didn’t need her help. He didn’t quit until he planted his feet on the soft forest floor next to her.
Anna smiled. “Okay?”
Menlo ran his wrist across his forehead and nodded. “Now I know where I am. I can handle anything now that I’m on the ground.”
Anna looked around. “There’s only one problem. I don’t know the way to the Eastern Divide.”
“I do,” he replied.
Anna gasped. “You do?”
“Sure.” He set off through the trees. “I’ve been here before, remember?”
Anna hurried to catch up to him. “But how can you find your way in the dark?”
“We aren’t in the dark,” he replied. “Besides, I can smell the forest.”
Anna took a breath, but she didn’t smell anything but cold, damp trees. “What do you smell?”
He didn’t stop walking. “Every forest has a distinctive smell. This forest smells different from my home forest, but I can smell my home forest coming from over there, beyond those mountains. That’s the Eastern Divide.”
Anna squinted into the dark. “How can you smell it from so far away?”
“The wind is coming from that direction,” he replied. “It brings the smell to me from there. That’s where I need to go.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“I’m sure.”
The farther he got from the Avitras, the more sure and swift his strides became until Anna had to run to keep up with him. Now she was the one to pant and sweat from the effort. At last, she called out to him, “Wait a minute.”
He turned around. “Am I moving too fast for you?”
She shook her head and caught her breath. “You go ahead. I’m going back.”
He arched his eyebrows. “You can’t go back. Aquilla will kill you when he finds out you let me escape.”
“I’m not going back to the Avitras,” she explained. “I’m going to the Lycaon. I couldn’t stay with the Avitras anymore, and I was happy with Lycaon. Their territory is back that way. You go on. You’ll be home soon. Don’t worry about me.”
He frowned, but before he could answer, a shadow moved across her field of view. She tried to warm Menlo, but the shadow materialized from behind a tree, and Aquilla stood before them. “You don’t have to worry about Aquilla finding out you let him escape. He already knows.”
Menlo jerked his weapon out of his waistband and rounded on his foe. He bared his teeth and roared a challenge that shivered the massive tree trunks. Aquilla drew himself up to his full height and crouched to spring. He paid no attention to the weapon in Menlo’s hand.
Anna stepped back to give them room. Nothing would please her more than seeing Menlo pay Aquilla back for his cruel treatment. She never doubted for an instant that Menlo would triumph over Aquilla in a fight to the death.
Menlo coiled in on himself with every muscle tensed. The knife meant nothing to him, either. He would tear Aquilla to pieces before he went back to the Avitras as a prisoner.
The two men sized each other up in a flash and would have rocketed toward one another with all the blood lust of mortal enemies. But at that moment, another figure emerged from the trees and stepped between them. Piwaka held out his hands to both men. “Stop where you are!”
Aquilla gnashed his teeth. “Get out of the way, old man. This has nothing to do with you.”
“You don’t think so?” Piwaka asked. “Who do you think drugged your Guards so this Usridrean could get away? Do you really think he could sneak past me if I had my eyes open?”
Aquilla paused for a fraction of an instant. Then he narrowed his eyes at Piwaka. “You call yourself my Captain? This is the last time you’ll ever interfere with me again. You’ll be banned from the Guard and sent to the frontier to live with the outliers.”
Piwaka smiled his inscrutable smile, but he didn’t move. “You couldn’t rule our faction without me. You could never have captured this Ursidrean in the first place without my help, and I won’t let you drive our people to ruin over some nonsense about your brother. This was never about your brother, and if you stand against me, I’ll make sure you lose your position as Alpha. No Alpha can stand without his lieutenants. You know that.”
Aquilla hesitated again, but only for a moment. “I don’t need any lieutenants who aren’t loyal. You drugged the Guards, and you tried to drug me, too. You’re finished. Now get out of the way. I have a job to do here.”
Piwaka turned his back on Menlo and faced Aquilla with his own arms flexed and his legs bent to attack. “You’ll have to kill me first before you harm a hair on this man’s head. You know what Donen will do when he finds out what you’ve done. I never should have gone along with your plan to capture him. I won’t let that mistake cost our people any more lives. Let him go, or do your worst with me.”
This time, Aquilla really did hesitate. He might have fooled himself that he could defeat Menlo in single combat, but he didn’t stand a chance against a hardened warrior like Piwaka. The glint in Piwaka’s eye told him he wasn’t joking around.
Still, Aquilla couldn’t back down without losing face. Piwaka would
never tell anyone Aquilla gave up without a fight, but Aquilla couldn’t live with himself if he went back to the village in defeat. If he hoped to maintain his position as Alpha, he had to remain undefeated.
The wheels turned in his mind. He glanced over Piwaka’s shoulder at Menlo standing ready to take over where Piwaka left off. Even if by some slim chance Aquilla defeated Piwaka, Menlo was waiting for his turn. Aquilla would never beat Piwaka without suffering some injury or at least exhaustion. He couldn’t face Menlo afterwards.
He hardened himself for the first assault, even knowing it was hopeless. At least he would die in open combat. No one would call him a coward. He crouched to spring at Piwaka, but all at once, a voice echoed through the trees and called his name. The voice was female.
Anna whirled around, and Penelope Ann appeared between the trees. “Stop, Aquilla!”
His eyes widened, and his arms fell to his sides. “What are you doing here?”
She strode right up to him, past Anna and Menlo and Piwaka as if they weren’t there. She stopped in front of him and peered into his burning eyes. “What are you doing? You aren’t going to fight them, are you?”
“Of course I’m going to fight them,” he shot back. “My prisoner is escaping. I have to take him back.”
Penelope Ann shook her head. “You’re not going to take him back, and you aren’t going to fight these men, either. Let Menlo go.”
Black rage erupted in Aquilla’s eyes. “Never! This man, who claims to be Captain of my Guard, colluded with these other two traitors to drug my Guards so the prisoner could get away. They have to be punished.”
Penelope Ann only shook her head again. “How do you think he drugged the Guards? He put the drug into their food. And how could he do that, when he sat at your side all night long? Anna and I did it. He gave us the drug, and we put it into your food.”
He stared at her from under his burning brows. “You—you did this? But you served that food to the Guards....and to me. So you tried to drug me too? How could you do this to me?”
She laid both hands on his shoulders with no fear. “We couldn’t let you kill this man and spark a war that would destroy our faction. Another war would kill even more men we can’t spare, and it would probably destroy the Ursidreans, too. We couldn’t let that happen.”
Menlo spoke up from behind Piwaka. “Our faction no longer has enough men to patrol our borders. Another war would cost us the lives of our young people. If we lost them, our population would collapse and we would never recover.”
“The Lycaon are in the same position,” Piwaka added. “Every year, fewer and fewer warriors patrol their border. None of the factions can afford another war.”
“You see?” Penelope Ann asked. “We did it for the good of our people. Let Menlo go, and be the savior of the Avitras. You won’t be a coward. You’ll be a hero. You can open up new negotiations with Donen and inaugurate a new era of peace between our factions. Instead of fighting the Ursidreans all the time, we can use our resources to rebuild our population the way we need to. We can build new villages and dedicate more time to preserving our histories.”
Aquilla frowned. He surveyed the faces observing him. Then his eyes returned to Penelope Ann.
“Do it for me,” she murmured. “If you won’t do it for anyone else, do it for me. Who will I lean on if you die here fighting these men? Did you think of that? I would be left alone. Who would be my Alpha if anything happened to you?”
He gazed into her eyes, but already his expression changed. The burning madness faded from his face, and the light of reason returned.
Penelope Ann squeezed his shoulders, and she dropped her voice to a murmur. “No one could ever love me the way you have. Don’t take yourself away from me now.”
His eyes blazed again, but with passionate love instead of murderous hatred. “No one will ever love you again, not as long as I’m around.”
A brilliant smile burst across her face, and she drew him to her. “You’re my hero. You’re my savior. Come home with me.”
He towered over her and took her in his arms. The next moment, his face disappeared from Anna’s view as their lips merged in a passionate kiss. He folded her in his arms and lifted her off the ground.
Piwaka waved his hand toward the trees, and Anna and Menlo took his signal and started forward. Menlo set off at a rapid stride, and Anna hurried after him.
Chapter 15
At the top of the rise, Anna caught Menlo by the hand and pulled him to a stop. “This is where I turn off.”
Menlo spun around and stared at her in the early grey dawn. “You’re not seriously striking out for Lycaon territory by yourself, are you?”
Anna nodded. “I can’t go back to the Avitras. I told you that.”
“It probably won’t be the same,” he replied. “Aquilla’s not raving mad anymore, and you won’t have me to worry about. It could be good for you again, the way it was when you first came.”
Anna shook her head. “I can’t go back, not even with Aquilla restored and you set free. I never really belonged there. I don’t know why I came over in the first place. I should have stayed with the Lycaon. No, that’s not right. I do know why came over. I came because of Frieda. Now she’s gone. I have no more reason to stay here.”
He shrugged. “I still think you should reconsider. You’ve got a long, hard road ahead of you. I hate to think of you traveling all that way by yourself.”
“Well, what’s the alternative?” she asked. “I won’t go back to the Avitras, and that’s final.”
He eyed her in the growing light. “Come with me. Come to Ursidrean territory with me.”
Her mouth fell open. “You’re joking.”
He shook his head. “I’m not joking. You said you didn’t have anything left, and I don’t want to go back without you. Come with me, and neither of us will ever have to be alone again.”
She started to say something, but he stopped her mouth with a kiss. Anna froze with his lips lingering on hers. She tasted again the fear and grief of their one brief night in the store room when she never expected to see him alive again. At the same time, she tasted something new, some distant promise of lands and people she’d never seen—the promise of a real future together with him.
He pulled back to look her in the eye, but she didn’t move. She let her lips enjoy the softness of his kiss while her mind floated above the scene and looked down from above.
Emily was in Ursidrean territory with Faruk. Anna wouldn’t be alone. Menlo and Faruk were old friends. Anna and Menlo might wind up spending quite a lot of time with Emily and Faruk. That would be nice.
And the Ursidreans lived in developed cities with electricity and medical care and vehicles. Anna wouldn’t have to cook on open fires anymore or survive on nuts and seeds. For the first time since she crashed on this planet, she would actually live a life of ease and comfort. Who could say no to that?
At long last, her gaze migrated back to Menlo’s face and she found him studying her. He followed the turns of her thoughts through her expression. He whispered to her between her lips. “I love you, Anna. Don’t turn your back on that.”
She sucked in her breath. “You love me? You never said that.”
“Who could fail to love you after the way you rescued me from the Avitras?” he asked. “Who could let you walk away after the times we’ve seen and survived there?”
She blushed. “I didn’t exactly rescue you. Piwaka and Penelope Ann did most of it.”
He shook his head again. “I wouldn’t be standing here, on the border of my own territory, if it hadn’t been for you. Piwaka and Penelope Ann would have let Aquilla kill me if you hadn’t convinced them to stop him. You don’t think I’m going back to Harbeiz by myself, do you? What would Donen say, if I turned up there and told him all about you? He would say, ‘How could you let this woman walk away? How could you let her go back to the Lycaon? Why didn’t you do everything under the s
un to bring her here with you?’ He would never respect me again, and I would never respect myself, either.”
She had to laugh at that, but he didn’t laugh.
“I love you, Anna,” he told her. “I don’t want to go back to Harbeiz without you. If you go to the Lycaon, I better come with you.”
“You can’t do that,” she blurted out. “You’re Ursidrean. You couldn’t live with the Lycaon.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Then you better come with me.”
She stared at him. Why was she arguing with him when she really wanted to go? She took his hand. “Alright. I’ll come.”
They turned toward the east. Thousands of miles of trackless mountains stretched away as far as the eye could see, but in the distance, a tiny point of light twinkled in the wilderness. “That’s Harbeiz, our capital city.”
That light called Anna home, and warmth spread through her frozen heart. In a few days, it would welcome her as no other place had. She would throw her arms around Emily’s neck, and she would live in her own place, with Menlo at her side. She would live in peace and quiet and comfort. She would have found her place, and Angondra would be her home.
THE END
Book 5 – The Alien’s Wonderland
Chapter 1
Frieda Evans ran her hand through the tall waving grasses and wildflowers of a sun-drenched meadow. The summer wind blew her short dark curls back from her face and filled her with bliss. The pungent smell of sun-baked earth and grass imbued her with comfort and contentment.
Sunlight flashed across her eyelids from above, and she raised her face to the sky. That sky wasn’t blue, but an iridescent kaleidoscope of shimmering color and prismatic sparks. Every now and then, a dark shape wiggled across it, or a tear-drop shaped shadow interrupted the light.
Across the meadow, a high wall of white stone cut off the view beyond the grass. Groups of people milled around its base, but Frieda couldn’t make them out at that distance. Behind her, the meadow ended at the edge of a dark forest, but the tree trunks slithered back and forth in the wind with slow waving movements.
Damen (Dragons of Kratak Book 2) Page 50