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She resumed her investigation of Thiiril and she was on the destruction of the population centres when Venin returned.
The shuttle’s monitors were flaring bright with colour though there was nothing to worry about. They still had over an hour before they needed to prepare for entry into the atmosphere.
She shivered as he took his place in the pilot’s seat and sipped at the water that she still had at her hand.
“How often do you do this, Venin?”
“Every time I can rummage through the archives of a world to find hidden objects that can be used to enhance psychic powers or hinder them. There are a few worlds out there that want nothing to do with any sort of psychic interference. They request restraint measures from the Citadel.”
That surprised her. “They actually do that?”
“If it suits a world to deny their psychic talents, it is better that they use a damper than to kill off their psychics. The Citadel puts in maintenance of the dampers as one of their requirements and they send their seekers in to check for talents once every few years.”
Iris chuckled. “So, they give them the means to make everyone look and act normal and then shut down that mechanism in order to spot the talents. Very smart.”
Venin grinned. “The Citadel thinks so. They have a fairly active recruitment going on with the Citadel opening more bases near the Sector Guard stations.”
“Interesting, I hadn’t heard anything about that, but then, we don’t get a lot of traffic through the Citadel base on Keroa.” She chuckled softly.
“Administrator Hyak has mentioned that the base there is very quiet. Apparently, the locals have a tendency to take care of most things themselves.”
Iris smiled. “It is one of our species characteristics. We tend to do what we can for ourselves before asking another to step in.”
Venin smiled and started to flip switches on the console. “Well, thank you for stepping in here. I am not sure what we are going into but having someone with your experience at my side will be a tremendous help.”
Iris tried to keep a pleasant expression on her features, but she knew what they were flying into and it was not going to be fun.
Thiiril was not a silent world. It was green and alive from north to the south pole. It was so overgrown that it took all of Venin’s skill to put their shuttle down, but the moment that they were settled and he powered it down, Iris was out of her seat and making for her saddle bags.
“What do you have in there?”
She looked at him as he pulled his own supplies and gear out of the cabinets. “Just a few things that I need to keep with me so that we can live to find this item.”
She carefully strapped on her weapon belt, sliding supply pouches into place with the ease of long practice. There were enough food and water purifiers now resting on her hips to last her for two weeks. If she was able to find plants and animals that were edible, she could stretch her supplies to last for months, even with her companion.
She checked and cleaned her knives before strapping her bush knife to her back. The strap that held its sheath rested snugly between her breasts and she twisted slowly to make sure that it was comfortable.
Iris put a band of leather across her forehead and twisted it around her hair to keep it back and out of her way while allowing it to cover her ears. She hated bugs getting in her ears.
Venin peeled out of his robes, exposing a fitted bodysuit beneath that made her mouth water.
The robes had concealed a pair of wide, muscular shoulders, narrow hips, powerful thighs and a body that was designed for physical exertion. Iris sighed as she imagined herself with him and having him exert himself over and over again. Shaking her head, she brought her attention to the now.
Now, she was preparing to set foot on a strange world and look for something that she was unfamiliar with.
“Venin, do you know which way we need to go?”
He nodded and started shifting into his own pack. “We need to head for the volcano and when we reach the foothills, we turn right toward the rising sun. It should be a day’s walk in and a day’s walk out. How long we will take to find it, I have no idea.”
“Do you have the image of the item?”
He held out his hand with a flat disk in it and a hologram lit up and showed a crystal that was about one fifth of her body size.
Venin smiled, “The image was taken and filed with the archives eons ago. I found it in the Alliance Archive while on one of my artefact hunts.”
She laughed. “Well, if that is what I am hunting, we will find it.”
He raised a brow. “Or you are not morinial?”
She waited for him to open the door. “I have a shameful ancestry to live up to. Let’s get going.”
With a flourish, he opened the door and they stepped onto the first strange world that she had ever touched with hand or foot. Thiiril greeted her with a thousand scents and sounds.
It was not going to be easy to lead him through the jungle, but it was going to be fascinating. As she looked at the dark suit that outlined his impressive physique, she had to buckle her instincts down. She was also going to be hunting through the jungle with the biggest distraction she had ever met.
This was going to be a challenge to her instincts and her training and she had always loved a challenge.
Chapter Six
Her first steps into the jungle gave her the heavy scent of rotting plant matter as well as water. None of the telltale signs of predators were in the area, but Iris trusted her dream. There were deadly creatures in that green expanse and nothing would keep them from coming after fresh meat.
“Ready, Venin?”
“You lead and I will follow, Iris. I have a directional indicator.”
She straightened, sniffed and found the telltale sulphur of the volcano. “I will let you know if I need it, but feel free to check in on our location. I don’t mind if you let me know that I am heading the wrong way.”
He chuckled. “Then lead on. I will let you know if I need to stop.”
She checked him quickly. “You have water?”
“I do.” His nostrils flared as he lifted his head. He scowled. “I don’t know how you are going to find your way in all of that.”
“I will follow the volcano. It is easier than dealing with the jungle.” She didn’t mention that she had already seen their path through the jungle. Coming to grips with the dreams showing her the path to her prey had been part of her growing up.
Her psychic blades were secondary to her dreams and while her family didn’t advertise it, they were definitely part of her. All of those who had witnessed it simply accepted her talent but didn’t talk of it in casual conversation. Sure, they may have gotten drunk and shared stories of being near her when she used them, but it wasn’t something mentioned in polite company.
Her dreams were her true weapon and they were only common knowledge for her family.
With her shoulders straight and her senses on the alert, she took the first steps into the jungle and away from the safety of the shuttle.
Three hours later, she was drenched in sweat and she could hear Venin breathing behind her. “I am calling a break.”
The temperature had turned the already-humid air into a thick, gaseous soup that made it hard to breathe and harder to exert herself.
She examined a log for inhabitants and then took a seat. Venin sat next to her and he swatted at the insects that were trying to make friends with him.
“Why aren’t these bloodsuckers after you?”
She grinned slightly after fishing out a small ration cube. “The energy that powers my knives causes a change in my personal electric field. Bugs don’t like it. I can also turn it up to fry them if I am so inclined.”
She shaved a slice of ration off with one of the blades she wore. With slow and measured chewing, she broke the small slice down into nothing before swallowing. She had no urge to get bound up internally while in the jungle and the compressed rations woul
d do precisely that if she ate too much.
A sip of water washed the food away and she carefully took another bite.
Taking pity on Venin, she reached out and caressed his arm lightly, placing a hint of her charge into his suit. The bugs shot off in every direction.
“Thank you. I think I am down a pint.” He grinned and took out his own rations, sipping and chewing in turn.
“How far do you estimate we are?”
Venin lifted the small beeping object off his belt. “We are making amazing time. It is almost like you have been here before.”
She snorted. “Not likely. This is my first time off Keroa.”
He gave her a look that she couldn’t decipher, but she suspected that he had a suspicion that she was not a one-talent woman.
“Then it is true. Your people don’t leave often.”
“No need to. Keroa is sparsely populated and has ample farm and hunting grounds. We don’t need to go anywhere to get what we need to live and thrive.” She shrugged and put the rest of her ration cube back into her pouch.
She took a few more sips from her flask and put in back into position. “Let me know when you are ready.”
He blinked at her. “You have quite a bit of stamina. It’s good to know.”
Iris looked at him with suspicion. “Why?”
He grinned, “When it happens, you will know.”
With that peculiar comment ringing in her mind, she returned to the path that was glowing in her mind.
They had gone on for half an hour through thickening jungle when her distraction almost cost her her life.
The beast swung down from the tree and swiped at her with a wide yellow claw. She jumped back and slammed into Venin. With nowhere to retreat, she extended her psychic blades and slashed at the creature.
It yowled in shock and backed away, only to swing around her and try to attack from behind.
Venin shook and shifted his form, gaining a muzzle as well as huge claws.
For a moment, Iris wasn’t sure which one deserved her blade, her companion or the jungle beast.
Venin circled around it and it fled toward her and away from the other predator.
As swiftly as she could, she jammed her blades into it at the base of its spine, breathing easier as the creature slumped to the jungle.
Venin’s wide golden eyes stared into hers as he approached. She noted the feline features, the flat nose and visible fangs. To her shock, his tail lashed from side to side.
“Um, Venin, you have a little something on your face, like fur and pointy teeth.”
His words were slow but clear, “You are not afraid.”
“I am not. I have the ability to stab you at my whim, remember? It is quite the confidence builder.”
He let out a slow, coughing laugh. A deep purr rumbled from his chest.
“You are not pure Azon, are you?”
His smile was toothy enough to be frightening, but she found it fascinating. “I am not. This is what happens when Morin genes combine with the right Azon genetics. We get the best of both worlds. The same as when it happens in your species.”
She blinked rapidly. “So, you are part Morin?”
“More recently than the Keroa but still an unexpected blend. The Azon males are far more protective of their females than your folk, but some of the Morin managed to get their genes into our species.”
Iris shook her head. “Do you stay like that?”
He laughed. “If it does not bother you, it does make it easier for me to navigate in the jungle.”
“Be my guest. Let’s get going. That creature was part of a social group and was defending their territory. We don’t want to be here when the rest of them show up.”
He nodded and gestured for her to lead once again.
Somehow, having his new form at her back was even more disturbing than his original shape. She was in trouble.
Chapter Seven
It was nearing sunset when they broke cover and were suddenly on the rocky edge of the volcano that was their ultimate target.
“What do you know about the folk who hid the crystal here?”
He grinned with his frightening show of teeth. “As much as you do. The Morin were the ones who hid the crystal here. They wanted to make sure that it wasn’t used for unsavoury uses and with the power of weather channelled through it, it would devastate whole worlds.”
“The Morin are the dead gods?”
He shifted back into his normal form. “They are. In a last-ditch effort to pass on their bloodlines, they stopped at every planet with compatible females and did what they could to keep their genes circulating.”
“And they hid their technology wherever they went.”
Venin’s smile applauded her for catching on as quickly as she had. “Exactly.”
She got to her feet. “We need to get to the staging area and rest for the night. The Morin planted any number of secrets in their caverns and we need to be alert to find our way.”
His eyes widened. “How do you know that?”
“You are not the only one with more than one talent. What is your psychic ability?”
He chuckled. “Isn’t my other form enough?”
She laughed. “It is, but I doubt that you use your tail to get you where you need to be.”
“You show me yours and I will show you mine.”
She was too tired to do more than scowl at him. With her mind focussed on the glowing path in front of her, she sparked up her blades and found the entrance into the cavern that would lead them to the crystal.
“Stay back. This is going to get bright.” With a look at the stone on either side of her, she jammed the blades into the walls and her power flowed along the crystal veins that ran through the huge inner room.
When the room resonated at the same frequency as her body, she cut the power and watched the glow pulse lightly with her heartbeat.
She flipped out her small blanket and watched as the pad under it inflated lightly.
“How did you know how to do that?”
Exhausted, she stumbled and sat heavily on her small, lumpy sleeping pad. “It is one of my skills. Well, not really a skill, but when I am about to go on a hunt, I am given the path in a dream the night before. I knew about those tree creatures and I knew that they don’t travel alone for very long.”
He reached into his pack and he flicked out a small square that popped up into a tent large enough to hold his tall frame easily.
He gave her a glance that held some meaning she couldn’t decipher. “Come on in, the air pad is more comfortable than that little thing.”
She scowled. “I am all sweaty. I don’t want to inflict that on you.”
He walked to her spot on the stone floor and knelt on her bedroll. Without asking permission, he pressed his nose to her neck and inhaled deeply. “You smell divine.”
Her blush could have lit the room and the light above them pulsed rapidly.
“I don’t think that it is appropriate that we share a tent.”
Venin winked. “Well, I can’t show you my talent unless we are close together.”
She raised her brows in surprise. “You are kidding.”
“I am not. If you want to see what I can do, you will have to share a comfortable night’s sleep with me.” His eyes were sincere, but they shifted to take on a feline cast.
Huge kitten eyes stared at her and she couldn’t hold her composure. She laughed and gave in. “Fine. I will just eat dinner and then join you in your tent. No funny business though.”
He held up both hands. “I promise, nothing funny.”
She took out her knife and shaved off another strip of ration. Being polite, she offered it to him.
Venin’s eyes widened as he chewed slowly. “What is that? It’s amazing.”
“Keroa ration cubes. My mother makes them for me. She takes my favourite foods, compresses, dries and compresses them again until I get a three inch cube that I can eat for days.”
&n
bsp; He asked for more and she felt she needed to warn him, “Drink a lot of water or you will get a little…congested.”
He nodded and sipped at his water bottle. “I think I am running low.”
When he sniffed for fresh water, she nodded to the far corner of the stone chamber. “There is a small waterfall there, but I will have to come with you. If you take water from the basin, it will paralyze you.”
“How do you know this?”
“I told you, it is part of my talent. I know where I need to go and how I need to get there safely. The proper path glows and anything else remains dark.”
“What is wrong with the water in the basin?”
“It has absorbed the metals that line the basin. It is a very effective paralytic.” She didn’t explain the images she had of men, women and animals all lying on the edge of the pool.
Iris noted that the bones of the dead were mostly dust by this point, but she still sought out the small, hidden steps in the side of the waterfall. “Give me your water bottle.”
He handed her the collapsible bottle and she tucked it under the strap of her long knife as she climbed to the mouth of the waterfall where it came out of the crystal.
“Why are you going so high?” He was standing at the foot of the falls and staring up as she worked her way up the fall.
“The mineral here taints the water the moment that it strikes it.” She leaned out and held his water bottle under the fresh flow that only touched the psychic-sensitive crystal.
Carefully, she propped the full bottle on her knee to cap it before she dropped it. Her own water bags were filled one at a time and carefully slung back onto her belt.
Iris’s arms were shaking with fatigue when she managed to finish getting water and stood next to the pool once again. “Well, there, we are set for tomorrow.”
She yawned and headed for her bedroll again.
He beat her to the small, flat blanket and gathered it up, shifting it into the tent. “Come along. You are exhausted.”
She followed him meekly and when he stepped into the tent, he pressed something along the wall that caused an outward expansion.