by Lizzy Ford
Teyan remained, poised, for a moment longer before he sheathed one sword and turned.
“Are you hurt?” he asked as he approached me.
I shook my head and stood. My ribs ached, and I didn’t doubt they were bruised.
He reached for me and then stopped, his hand dropping.
I gazed up at him, and everything I wanted to say stuck in my throat. My god, he was so beautiful in that moment, my fierce warrior with nothing but warm concern for me in his eyes.
He studied me briefly before glancing towards the figures the cats fought.
“Give this to Hiko,” he spoke after a pause. He handed me another of the batons. “Keep yours with you.”
I accepted it and willed myself to speak. Nothing came out, and I clutched both batons.
Without another word, Teyan ducked his head and ran to join the cats.
My heart felt like it sank into my stomach as I watched him.
“Caretaker, are you hurt?” Hiko asked and trotted to me. Sweating and grim, he was trailed by one warrior but not the other.
“Not really.” I handed him the baton.
“Finally,” he said with some irritation. “Come. Let’s get rid of the rest of these monsters and move on.”
The pulse of another baton charge being set off made me shiver. More distant, it tickled the hair on my arms without tossing my long tresses into the air.
The night became quiet suddenly, aside from our heavy breathing.
Safe, Tomtom reported. He, Teyan and Teyan’s cat hurried back towards us.
“We cannot stop before we reach the city,” Teyan said.
“Agreed. There’s a second portal to Bikitomani near the capital city, if we need to escape,” Hiko said. “I cannot begin to guess what awaits us.”
Worry for my mom sent my stomach twisting into knots, and I couldn’t get over the fear I’d experienced when I thought of Teyan in danger.
I was starting to think coming here was a mistake.
We began walking, this time at a much quicker pace. Tomtom went ahead of us to draw out any more ambushes while Teyan’s cat trailed.
One of Hiko’s men was dead, and I tried not to think about it as we walked. Whatever happened on this trip, it was my fault. I’d insisted on coming despite the warnings. My eyes went to Teyan, who trailed Tomtom at a trot. If anything happened to him … if anything happened to my mom …
I couldn’t let myself dwell on such potential outcomes, not when I needed to be aware of my surroundings. Teyan fought well enough that I could see how the Tili had managed to prevent the monsters from decimating their planet. But would it be enough? If the monsters wiped out the Nidiani before we got to the city, how would we ever find the missing Caretakers?
Tripping, I forced myself to concentrate on moving rather than thinking.
We walked fast for a couple of hours, until dawn lightened the horizon, and one of the suns peered onto the desert. Hiko guided us away from the line of destroyed cities to head what would be westward on my planet.
I pulled on my cloak and hood to keep the sun off my features and downed one of the canteens of water before the suns were full on. As promised, they had refilled themselves over the night.
The pace slowed when the suns were up. Teyan and Tomtom pulled farther ahead, neither appearing remotely weary after the long night. I watched them in envy. My calves were killing me after the long trek through the loose sand, and blisters had formed on one of my heels.
The worst was my ribs. At first, I thought fear and worry were keeping my chest tight, but the stiffness transcended my usual anxiety issues to the point I began having trouble breathing deeply. The last thing I needed was bruised ribs. Then again, did it matter, if I was doomed anyway?
I was so confused, I didn’t know what to do.
“Wait,” Hiko said, pulling me from my thoughts.
I looked up to see Teyan and Tomtom had disappeared.
“Ask your beast if there’s danger,” Hiko said.
I did so.
The response wasn’t a yes or no like I expected. It wasn’t danger either. Confused, I asked again.
Angry.
My cat could get angry? “I don’t know,” I said in puzzlement. “I don’t think so.”
Hiko considered without moving forward.
Seconds later, Teyan reappeared and waved for us to approach.
We did so, Hiko at a quicker pace than me because my chest was too tight for me to breathe hard. When I reached them, I paused. Tomtom was standing over a body, but it wasn’t a robot. Afraid of what I’d see, I inched closer.
Teyan was frowning and Hiko muttered beneath his breath. He looked around, turning a full three sixty, before he hurried to the top of the nearest dune.
“If he’s here, then …” He drifted off.
“Agreed,” Teyan said.
My brow furrowed, and I waited for someone to tell me what was going on. I looked again at the body. No blood was visible, and sand dusted his jeans.
Blinking, I moved closer. Jeans.
Tomtom nudged me back, and I shifted to get a better look.
“Carey!” I exclaimed, recognizing his features. I started forward.
Teyan caught my arm, and I glanced up at him.
“He is alive but unconscious,” he said.
My gaze lingered on Teyan’s strong features. He released me, and I stayed beside him.
“What is it?” I asked at his troubled expression.
“If he is here, we are close to the portal. But there’s no sign of the city that should be here,” he answered.
My heart skipped a beat. Was he saying an entire city had disappeared?
“The monsters were headed in this general direction,” Hiko said. “I see nothing.”
I looked back at Carey and then strode forward. I wasn’t afraid of him for certain, and he owed me an explanation or two about all this.
Kneeling beside him, I brushed sand from his features. “Carey,” I murmured. He didn’t appear to be hurt.
Tomtom was growling low in his throat, not convinced the Caretaker was safe to be around.
I tapped Carey’s cheeks. His eyelashes fluttered and then opened.
He stared at me blankly and then blinked and squinted. “Gianna?” he asked.
I nodded.
Teyan’s sword was at his throat a second later. “I believe you have hidden much from us, Caretaker,” he growled in a voice as low as Tomtom’s.
Carey sighed and nodded. “I will tell you everything when we’re in the city.”
“The city’s gone,” Hiko replied.
“It’s there. You think we’re completely defenseless?”
I glanced at Teyan to see if he was buying the story. The warrior’s face was stony and unreadable. I stretched forward and rested my hand against the flat of the sword to push it away.
Teyan met my gaze.
“We need him,” I said quietly.
After a second, Teyan lowered his sword and gaze and then bent, hauling Carey to his feet. The Nidiani Caretaker wobbled and caught his balance. Without releasing him, Teyan escorted him to the top of the nearest dune, beside Hiko.
“What city, Nidiani?” Teyan’s voice was rougher than I’d heard it. “I know of your lies. Speak quickly if you wish me to spare your life.”
I held my breath. Teyan was lethally serious. I willed Carey to say something, partially because I didn’t want him killed and partially because I needed to know what he did about what was going on.
“It’s camouflaged,” Carey said. “I can lead you into it.”
“Into a trap,” Hiko snapped.
“No,” he shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that to Gianna.” His voice quivered.
“Why were you lying unconscious in the sand outside your city?” Hiko demanded.
Carey cleared his throat. “I didn’t come through the portal alone. Jiod was with me. I wanted to warn my people but he had a different idea.”
Hiko and Teyan ex
changed a look. The Tili warrior shoved Carey forward.
“Lead us,” he commanded. “And know if you betray us, your life is mine.”
Carey nodded and glanced back at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but familiar anger stirred. He faced forward and began walking.
We trailed him down into the sand dune. The world before us began to shimmer unnaturally, and as we grew near, the shimmer took solid form. A large, sprawling city covered the valley, visible completely only when we were on the valley floor. The Tili lived in the jungle and the Bikitomani beneath the earth. The Nidiani, however, lived in a city that wasn’t laid out too differently than those I knew, aside from the sandstone walls of the buildings and arching gateways marking the main entrances. The tallest buildings were in the center and the streets laid out in grids.
The city bustled with activity, and the roads were packed with camel-like creatures and people, both of whom wore packs.
“They’re preparing for evacuation,” Carey said.
“To where?” I asked.
“One of the moons,” he explained.
“Take us somewhere safe,” Teyan directed him.
Carey began to walk with a small limp. He wove through crowds of golden-eyed people dressed in tans and browns – and almost everyone in a cowboy styled hat. Buildings rose two to five stories high around us and were made of sandstone or clay with windows containing no glass and doors made of woven grass.
Leading us out of the busy streets to a quieter side street, he stopped a short distance away and walked into what I assumed was a restaurant or other public gathering place of some sort. The door was open and the open areas beyond filled with people. The cats drew glances but no one stopped to confront us.
He took us to the second floor and walked room to room until we found one that was open.
Settling onto a sandstone bench, he sighed and rubbed his face.
I sat opposite him while Teyan remained standing. Hiko and his guard sat beneath the windows.
“You know where my mom and the Caretakers are,” I said when Carey didn’t volunteer to speak first.
“I have an idea, yes,” he admitted. “And I think I know what Jiod was up to.”
I held my breath.
“I think their negotiations were to tell the monsters about the portals. Jiod is acting with the permission of my government.”
Silence greeted his quiet explanation, and then Hiko whispered almost too quietly to hear.
“Time loop.”
I actually understood this reference and the long look he exchanged with Teyan.
“Yeah,” Carey said sadly. “And I think they’re keeping the Caretakers so they can help them find the portals meant to lead our ancestors to safety, so the Five Peoples exist. Once the monsters know about the single door that locks, they’ll be able to control an invasion without anyone stopping them.”
“To save his world, Jiod would destroy mine?” I voiced at last, unable to believe anyone would consider that a reasonable trade.
Carey nodded. “I’m sorry, Gianna. My government believes the Nidiani can survive the time loop.”
“Even if no one else does,” Hiko growled.
“No one will survive the monsters,” Teyan agreed.
Sickened by the idea, I couldn’t respond.
“Does he know which door locks?” Teyan asked.
“Yes,” Carey whispered.
“You told him,” I said quietly.
“Only when we were here on Nidiani after the portal closed,” Carey said quickly. “I didn’t know what else to do. He wouldn’t share the location of the Caretakers, so I bartered for it. You have to know I wouldn’t have said anything if - ”
“Do the monsters know? Your government?” Hiko demanded.
“Not yet. But they will soon. I tried to convince him not to do this. I tried to talk him out of it. We got into a fight …” Carey shook his head.
“The fool. He must know the monsters will not spare your world!” Teyan growled.
“My people are desperate,” Carey said, gaze on me. “You can’t blame Jiod for wanting to save our people.”
“At the cost of every other planet in existence?” Teyan countered. “My people die for all of the Five Peoples and whomever else is out there! Yours took the coward’s way out!”
“I’m not saying it’s right,” Carey said.
“What matters now is we find a way to stop the time loop,” Hiko said and stood. He was studying me. “I think this is when one person might make a difference.”
His words floated over my head. I was starting to feel claustrophobic in the tiny room, the sensation amplified by my bruised ribs. My world was doomed – but did it have to be? Was it possible to prevent Jiod from revealing the secret to those who would condemn my world?
Carey had shown a flicker of intelligence by revealing the location of the one door here on Nidiani, after the portal closed. It gave us some time.
What if I locked the door before anyone else could get to it?
What if I locked it before I found my mom?
“Where’s my mom?” I asked him.
“She’s being held with the others in the central palace as a guest.”
Did it matter if we died here at the hands of monsters or on my world?
I was starting to have an anxiety attack.
“I need some air.” I stood abruptly and fled, hurrying out of the building until I reached the open air of the quiet street and could breathe better. Tears were on my face, and I debated what to do. If I went back now and locked the door, I lost everyone I cared about. If I didn’t, I lost my world.
It wasn’t fair. I leaned against the side of the building, sick to my stomach and struggling not to have a panic attack when it was already difficult to breathe.
“Gianna,” Teyan’s voice was soft.
Straightening, I wiped my face and looked up at him.
“We will save her,” he said firmly. “And your world.”
“Not if it means your world never exists.”
“There must be a way,” he said without hesitation.
I needed to believe him, or I’d break down into a sobbing mess when I considered everything standing between us. I wanted to say something else, but it was hard to breathe and harder to speak when I was so aware of Teyan’s presence. We were doomed. Had always been doomed, so why did I want to throw myself into his arms and kiss him? Why did the thought of losing someone I barely knew hurt me as much as losing my mom?
Tomtom nudged me, and I instinctively buried a hand in the cat’s fur.
“He is worried. Are you hurt?” Teyan asked, able to read the cat better than I could.
“A little,” I said reluctantly. “When that thing grabbed me, I think it bruised my ribs.”
Teyan shifted close enough for his scent to send my thoughts twirling into chaos. He rested a warm, strong, wide hand on my torso and pressed lightly in several different spots. I grimaced whenever he hit a tender spot.
“They are likely broken,” he said. “I will find you a healer.”
I gazed up at him. I saw his worry, along with the intense emotion that left my eyes watering. The urge to speak, to tell him how I felt, returned, along with the sense I was only going to make life worse for both of us now that I knew the truth about the size of the obstacles standing between us.
“You need to stay inside for now,” Teyan said and stepped back, as if he, too, were suffering beneath the weight of the tension between us. “We cannot alert anyone who might be looking for us.”
I nodded.
“I will return,” he said and started away.
Whenever he left, I had the horrible sense I’d never see him again. It cored me on a level that made me sick to my stomach.
“Teyan!” I called, a little frantically.
He faced me.
No words would come, and we gazed at one another again.
“Go upstairs, Gianna,” he said gently.
“Be ca
reful,” I managed.
He bowed his head, turned and trotted away.
Tomtom’s soft, mournful yowl was one I understood. I bent with some difficulty and hugged the beast, letting my tears sink into his fur. When I felt ready to face the others, I wiped my face and returned to the second floor, where Hiko paced and Carey slumped.
“Good timing,” Hiko said with a glance at me. “We were about to decide how we’re going to rescue the Caretakers.”
Despite my weakened, bruised body, and the tears that wanted to escape, I nodded and sat, ready to discuss a rescue plan, no matter how futile the future seemed.
Chapter Twenty Four
It was evening when Teyan returned with none other than a Woli healer for me and food for us all. My ribs were so stiff from the day sitting and listening to how bad our situation was that standing made me sick to my stomach and my head spin. The mental stress was as bad as the physical discomfort. I couldn’t look at Carey without a surge of anger and regret and wishing I’d never met him.
Sensing my unsteadiness, Tomtom braced me with his body to keep me from falling. In a short time, I’d started to rely on having him around. His presence left me feeling less vulnerable than normal, and petting him when I became nervous helped me calm down. Where had my telepathically linked prehistoric monster been the rest of my life?
When I was stable enough not to topple over, we joined Teyan in the hallway. The Woli healer wore a long cloak and hood and stood in the doorway of the vacant room beside ours. The second floor had cleared out at sundown, and the roads were quiet, as if the Nidiani society as a whole had somewhere to be when the suns set.
The Woli beckoned me to follow her, and I did so into the second room.
Teyan lingered in the doorway. I felt his gaze. My inability to decide what I should do when it came to him made it even harder for me to breathe.
“I will remain in the next room,” he said finally. “Keep Tomtom with you.”
I nodded without looking at him.
The Woli warrior woman tugged a fabric door across the open doorway before lowering her hood and discarding the cloak.
“You are both suffering,” she observed, amusement in her tone.
I glanced at her. She was smiling. “Is he hurt, too?” I asked.