by Delia Roan
He clawed the tentacle holding her, severing it from the source which lurked in the darkness below. The stub whipped away, followed by the others surrounding them.
Run, he roared in his mind. Run like a coward!
Mel floated limply in the water, and he curled his clawed fist around her, cradling her tiny form to his new monstrous one. Her hair drifted, and her eyes remained closed.
I have you, my love.
Before he kicked upward, tentacles shot out of the darkness, wrapping them both in pulsating light. He drew Mel toward his chest and curled around her, protecting her delicate skin from the barbed hooks with his own tough armor. The tentacles flailed all over his thick hide, scrambling to find purchase. He rolled in the water, snapping at them, until they retreated.
However, Jahle could not stop his downward descent. When he uncurled, he struggled to recall which way was up. His head spun and his body shook. Darkness surrounded him, with not even the faintest glimmer of light to guide him to the surface. He twisted, trying to make sense of his new body and the weightlessness of the water.
Fear clenched his guts, making him struggle.
He would not die here. Not with his precious cargo in his hands.
He peered down at Mel. Darkness shrouded her face. Shutting his eyes, he brought to mind her riotous curls. Her long limbs. The way she shot daggers at him when he annoyed her. The fullness of her mouth when she moaned his name.
A tickling sensation ran up the scales of his neck and jaw.
He opened his eyes, but saw nothing. Yet he felt the tickle once more.
Bubbles.
The last bit of air from her lungs? Or just a bubble trapped in the corner of her mouth?
Bubbles.
Bubbles!
He knew which way was up. He stretched out his neck and began to kick and flick his tail and hind legs. Slowly at first, he moved upward, and then faster and faster, until he began to see the lights of the water mollusks above. His head burst into the air of the second cavern. Lungs heaving, he pulled Mel’s face out into the air. Her eyelids fluttered, and her nostrils flared.
She still lives!
His heavier Virtuous form tried to drag them both back down, so he returned to his lighter Latent form, pulling Mel close as he changed. While her waist had fit neatly into the curve of his talons, in his hands, she was a dead-weight. He flailed in the water, one arm curled around Mel until he reached the wandering barrel.
He hoisted Mel onto his chest, and rolled the barrel under his back and shoulder, leaving their legs trailing in the water. The fear of the tentacled creature returning loaned him strength. He kicked until his legs brushed the floor of the cavern, and he stood, hauling Mel and the barrel to the rocky shore.
He pressed his ear to her chest. The faint but steady thumping of her heart rewarded him. Her chest fluttered as she breathed, but blue and green hues mottled her creamy skin. Her lips were purple, and dark circles surrounded her eyes.
“Mel! Wake!” He tapped her cheeks with his hands. They were like ice.
She rewarded him with a weak cough before throwing up a considerable amount of dirty water.
“Oh, thank the moons,” he whispered.
She began to shiver. He needed to warm her up. Their clothes had survived inside the barrel. He pulled off her frozen shirt. He couldn’t get her pants on over her wet legs, so he used them to dry off her skin before dressing her in both her clothes and his. He dumped out the food from the backpacks and wound the fabric around her feet and hands. The wet pants served as a pillow, protecting her head from the pebbles.
“Fire,” he muttered. “Fire.”
But the cavern was bare.
His eyes landed on a tunnel leading out. Quickly he packed up their belongings into a single backpack, and scooped her into his arms. He followed the tunnel for a while before encountering a fork in the road.
The navigator had been correct.
Her tremors seemed to double, so Jahle curled his body around hers as best he could and hurried. To his relief, he soon found himself in a main access tunnel, one designed for heavy use. Markers set high in the wall showed him the way to the nearest campsite, still a good distance away.
“Almost there,” he crooned to her.
When he finally turned into the campsite, his legs were rubber. He collapsed to his knees and lowered Mel to the ground. Yet he could not afford to rest. He threw open the storage crate and nearly sobbed when he saw it had been stripped of resources.
“No bed,” he told Mel. “No heater.” He found a coil of rope and a small wooden box that rattled when he shook it. A fire starter. “It will have to do.”
He lit the fire by the mouth of the campsite, hoping they wouldn’t succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning. Fires in caves were dangerous without proper ventilation, but Mel needed warmth. When every flammable object he salvaged from the storage crate burned, he dragged Mel closer to the fire.
With his body pressed against hers, he lay on the ground, chewing his way through protein bars. He had intended to only eat two, but after shifting to his Virtuous form, he craved food. He ate five before forcing himself to stop.
Mel’s trembling slowed, then stopped, and her breathing deepened. Her face seemed to regain some color in her lips and cheeks, and when he touched her hand, her fingers held warmth again. Under his fingertips, her pulse fluttered.
I almost lost her, he thought. He brushed her hair until he fell asleep.
He awoke from a dream of his mother’s voice calling his name. “Jahle?”
Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he realized Mel spoke. He sat up and pulled her into his arms. “I am here.”
Her lashes fluttered and her eyes opened. When she spoke, her words were slurred and slow. “What happened?”
“We were attacked by a beast in the water. You passed out.”
She tried to struggle into a seating position, and flopped over. “No,” she said. Her head wobbled from side to side. “Somethin’ else. I was fighting and then I froze up.”
Jahle lifted her sweatshirt and examined the neat lines of red marks the tentacles had left. They appeared puffy and raised, with streaks of angry purple running across them. Some sort of venom? He tucked her shirt back down when she shivered, and he stoked the fire a few times to build it back up. After eating and drinking, her color returned, but the bruised look under her eyes didn’t seem to fade.
While he refilled the canteens from the water pump, Mel sat by the fire, warming herself.
“How do you feel?” he asked, packing away the canteens.
“Better,” she said. Her voice held steady, and her control of her limbs had returned.
“Are you okay to move? The spaceport is close. We should move with haste. Dogan will not be far behind.”
“I think so,” she said. She rolled her shoulders and coughed. “I'm more like myself at least. What was that thing?”
“I do not know.”
“No offense, but your planet is messed up.”
He nodded. The fault lies with the Ennoi Cadam.
They extinguished the fire and Jahle lifted Mel to her feet. For a second, they stood with their bodies pressed together. He remembered their last kiss, and warmth filled him. I could have lost her. He bent his head, bringing his mouth closer to hers.
“We should go,” Mel blurted out. She stepped away, leaving his hand suspended in midair. Her eyes held a hard emotion he could not place.
Does her pride rankle at being rescued?
He let his hand drop, watching as Mel slung a backpack over her shoulder and marched to the entrance of the campsite. She stopped and beckoned to him. “Come on.”
When he joined her in the corridor outside, he pointed her in the correct direction. “This tunnel will take us to a main thoroughfare.”
They marched on in silence.
With every step, the anxiety in Jahle’s belly grew. No doubt Dogan waited for them.
For all his faults, Dogan was no fool. He would anticipate their next move, and with the diggers, he would probably get to the spaceport first.
We are walking into an ambush.
They were one step closer to the spaceport. One step closer to Dogan’s wrath. One step closer to Mel blasting away from this barren rock.
One step closer to losing Mel.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
MELISSA
Her chest hurt.
Her chest hurt, her muscles ached and breathing became a trial. But Mel would not stop. She forced herself to keep moving. She stoked the anger inside her, letting it grow higher and higher, until she couldn’t tell if the buzzing in her head was from her thoughts or her suspected fever.
Either way, she had to keep going.
The tunnel walls became a blur of brown. She kept her head down, plodding along. Occasionally, Jahle stopped long enough to check the path markers. At one break, Mel leaned against the wall, taking a breather. Her left lung felt like it wouldn’t inflate all the way. She felt jittery and lethargic all at once.
I need a doctor, she thought. But I’m not going to find one here. Gotta get back to Earth.
“Are you okay?” Jahle stepped closer, shining his lamp on her face.
She winced and raised her arm to block the light. “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s just keep moving.”
The worst part was she couldn’t figure out what went through his head. One minute he pressed himself against her, making her knees weak, and the next he pushed her away, as if she would burn him. He helped her, but he also helped Dogan.
What did Dogan mean by Jahle’s messages?
Irritation pricked her skin. She knew next to nothing about Jahle. All along, he had been working toward his own goal. He hadn’t wanted to help her. Not really. He had used her. And somehow, he sent a message to Dogan, giving up their location. Yet he had saved her from Dogan? A last-minute change of heart?
You picked another winner, Mel. Way to go!
So why couldn’t she drown her doubts that maybe this was all a misunderstanding?
Men. She snorted. Can’t live with them, can’t watch them being eaten alive by a giant centipede.
They stopped for a meal, and Mel drank deeply from her canteen. The water churned in her stomach, but it cooled her burning body. She tried to force down the protein mush Jahle offered her, but despite all her activity, she had no appetite.
Jahle watched her, a crease of concern building between his brows. “You are unwell.”
It wasn’t a question. “No, I think I’m getting an infection.”
“How deadly are human infections?”
She shrugged. “I’ll either heal or I won’t.” She didn’t have to spell out what would happen if she didn’t heal.
He sat silently for a moment. He ran his hand through his hair. “Dogan will be waiting for us. There is no doubt he knows our next move.”
Mel grunted and stood. “Then we should keep going.”
He didn’t argue.
As they walked, Mel noticed a change in the tunnels. They grew wider. The stone markers grew larger, with more words upon them. And…
“Why is so much junk lying around?” She gestured to the broken carts, machines, vehicles, and wooden struts littering the tunnels.
Jahle paused, studying their surroundings. “The evacuation. I assume people brought as many of their belongings with them as they could. When they realized how little time they had left to leave Geran, they abandoned the excess here.”
“Easier to travel light,” Mel said, kicking the cracked spokes of a wheel. The cart resting on the wheel shifted. Mel stepped back. With a snap, the wheel crumbled, and the cart tipped. The bags spilled out, sending clothing, toys, and dishes rolling across the floor. A metal dish hit a rock and rang like a bell. The scent of mold rose into the air.
“Be careful,” Jahle said, bending down to gather up the items.
“Leave it,” Mel said. “We gotta go.”
Jahle shook his head and examined a toddler-sized dress. “It will only take a moment.”
“What?” Mel tapped her foot. “Are you serious?”
Jahle folded the dress into a bundle and tucked it back in the cart. “These goods belong to someone.”
“The owners of this junk are probably long dead,” Mel said. She clamped her lips shut at the stricken look on Jahle’s face.
Jeez, he really does care.
His shoulders hunched, he reached for a pair of pants. “Even more reason to treat them with care.”
With a sigh, Mel bent down and grabbed a tunic decorated with faded flowers. “Fine, let’s hurry.”
They returned the bags to the cart, and Jahle hauled it upright while Mel stuffed broken beams of wood under the axle.
She dusted off her hands. “There. Good as new.”
Jahle stared at the cart before tucking a doll’s hand back to its side. “It will never be good as new.”
“I think we did okay,” Mel said, squinting at the cart.
“More than just the cart.” He swung his arm around in an arc. “The caves. The city. Everything. Geran.”
Mel bit her lip. What could she say?
Nothing.
If Jahle felt helpless about the state of his home planet, Mel didn’t even have enough influence to change the state of his mind.
No, she only had control of her own fate. She needed to find Jenna and get back to Earth. Where she could wash out the dried salt off her skin, climb into cozy pajamas, and stuff her face full of pizza and pints of Rocky Road.
Nothing else matters.
“Come on,” she said, steeling her heart against his misery. “We should go.”
Reluctantly, he left the cart behind, and Mel made sure to step with more caution. The enormity of Geran’s destruction began to sink in as she saw more and more abandoned baggage. Kastik had been a huge city, with many buildings. She hadn’t really considered to where all the inhabitants of that vast city had vanished.
“Jahle,” she said after a pause. “So, all these people came from Kastik?”
“They were fleeing the bombing.”
“How did they know to run?”
“Cadam warned us.” His mouth twisted. “Gemet Ar’Cadam let us know exactly why they attacked.”
“Their leader?”
“Yes, lord of the Ennoi Cadam. I hear his son, Kovos, rules now.”
“Why did they attack?”
Jahle kicked at a rock, sending it skittering down the tunnel. “Revenge. Retribution.”
“Revenge?”
“Gemet claimed we hired the Sykorians to attack innocents.” He slammed his fist into the wall, making Mel jump. “Lies! I know my family. We would not do something so cowardly.”
Mel shuffled her feet and remembered Dogan’s treatment of the Water People. Of herself. Maybe they were capable of attacking innocents, she thought. You’re too blind to see the truth. She kept her mouth shut. She wouldn’t speak her conclusions out aloud. That was a fight not worth picking.
They walked on in silence. “So, as payback, those guys, the Cadam. They attacked your city?”
He grunted in affirmative. “As well as destroying half our terraforming machines, throwing our environment into chaos.”
“But they warned you first? That seems weird.”
“I cannot claim to understand their reasoning, but their warning saved lives. We had time enough to evacuate our citizens as best we could.”
“Where did all these people go?”
He considered her question. “In all honesty, I do not know. I suppose to where ever they were made to feel welcome. Geran had friendly ties to several colonies. Perhaps they sheltered our people.”
“But some of you stayed. You. Your brother?”
“Yes. We are more than Un’Geran, those born of Geran. We are Ar’Geran. Rulers of Geran. We cannot abandon our responsibilities. My father-” He broke off, dro
pping his head.
“You told me your family was assassinated,” Mel said softly. “What happened?”
Jahle cleared his throat. “My parents and my older siblings went to parley with the Ennoi Cadam. To deny the seriousness of the Cadam accusations. To beg for peace. Dogan refused. Claimed we were beyond such talks. He was ordered to remain at home to tend to me. I was a young child stricken with dolor for the first time. My mother did not wish for me to endure a long space flight.”
“The Cadam killed them?”
“Yes. Shot down as they approached Cadam. All of them gone. My parents. My sisters. My brother. Gone in an instant.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he replied. “It happened a long time ago.”
“And Jenna is going to help Dogan avenge your family. Sounds solid.”
“His plan is misguided, but I am thankful to still have Dogan.”
“He raised you?”
“Yes, and made me his honor guard. At first the title was merely symbolic…” His voice faded away, and the corners of his lips quirked. “I wonder sometimes if it still is symbolic.”
“What do you mean? What’s an honor guard?”
“An adviser. One who keeps the ruler of a clan on the correct path. Yet, I fear my brother has never listened to my counsel.”
Mel snorted. “I think that’s a sibling thing. My sister never listens to a word I say, either.”
He grinned at her. “I am sure as an older sister, you bestowed great nuggets of wisdom upon her malleable mind.”
“Hey! Are you making fun of me?” She lightly punched his arm. “I’ll have you know I’m really smart and really wise.”
“So wise,” he agreed, dipping his head.
Mel rolled her eyes at him, but her heart grew lighter. She had made him smile. It was worth the ribbing and teasing if it wiped some pain from his past. She sighed, and frowned when the inhalation sent a sharp pain into her chest. Her head spun, and she took a moment to steady herself.
Fortunately, Jahle’s attention was on the path, and he did not notice her wince.