Piwaka’s eyes flashed. “As I understand it, the Ursidreans have already unilaterally reduced their border patrols out of necessity, and the Avitras have not attacked. As long as the Ursidreans and the Avitras agree on the exact location of the border, neither faction has any reason to attack the other. The Ursidreans could reduce their patrols to nil, and the Avitras would not attack.”
“We have only your word for that,” Donen replied. “You could be luring us into reducing our patrols so we couldn’t repel an attack if it came.”
“The Avitras would not attack,” Piwaka replied. “We don’t have the numbers to attack. We suffer the same population strain you do. If you reduce your patrols, we will reduce ours.”
Donen shook his head. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t trust you.”
Piwaka inclined his head. “I don’t ask you to trust me. I don’t trust you, either. Go along as you have been, and see if the Avitras exploit your reduced border patrols. In a few years, when the Avitras haven’t attacked and no further incidents take place along the border, reduce your patrols again and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
“You haven’t attacked,” Donen returned, “but you did kidnap one of our people off the border. What’s to stop you from doing the same thing?”
“Reducing your patrols would prevent that. There would be no people along the border to kidnap.” Piwaka waved his hand. “I can give you as many assurances as you want that it won’t happen, but the truth remains that none of us can trust each other. We can only judge by future actions. If you agree to peace with the Felsite, you can only watch your border and see if they attack you over the next few years. They can only watch and see if you do the same thing. That’s as good as this peace agreement is to any of us.”
“We still have one problem,” Caleb told him.
“What’s that?” Piwaka asked.
“The Aqinas,” Caleb replied. “No one has consulted them.”
“We don’t have to consult them,” Renier added. “They don’t dictate terms on Angondra.”
“The Aqinas have arbitrated every peace agreement in Angondran history,” Caleb replied.
“They’ve also instigated every war in Angondran history,” Turk grumbled.
“We don’t know that for certain,” Emily argued. “That’s an old prejudice that might not be true.”
“Either way,” Chris added, “we should consult them about our plans. They might have something to contribute.”
“They might undermine us,” Carmen suggested.
“They travel through the water,” Emily told her. “They can touch every inch of Angondran territory in an instant. They might be able to help us in ways we can’t foresee.”
Chris took a step forward. Aquilla stiffened and moved back, but Piwaka held up his hand for calm. Chris took another step forward. “I have an idea.”
Turk put out his hand and tried to grab her, but she moved away toward the spring. She squatted beside the water and put her fingertips into the foaming current.
“What are you doing?” Marissa asked.
“I’m calling Sasha,” Chris replied. “All of us—all of us women—came along on this mission to help make peace between the factions. There’s a human woman living with the Aqinas. If we can bring her here, she can help us negotiate with the Aqinas.”
The group watched her in silence. She trailed her fingers back and forth through the shimmering water. Then Emily stepped forward. She squatted at Chris’s side. “What are you doing?” Anna asked.
“I’m calling Frieda,” Emily replied. “Sasha isn’t the only human woman living with the Aqinas. Frieda’s our sister. She can help us, too.” She dipped her fingers into the spring water. No one moved or even breathed.
All at once, a mighty explosion shot the spring water out of its bed. Chris and Emily stumbled back, and a curtain of water showered down on the grassy bank. A wall of black figures rose out of the spring and formed a line across the surface of the water.
The Avitras drew back in horror, but the others stood their ground. The film of black slime fell away from the indistinct shapes to reveal well-formed people of every age and sex. A young man with angular features and long black hair hanging in ropes down his back stepped out of the water up onto the bank. He surveyed the group. “Alpha Caleb. Alpha Renier. It’s been too long. And Alpha Aquilla, if I’m not mistaken.”
Aquilla bared his teeth at the Aqinas. “I don’t know you.”
Piwaka stepped in front of Aquilla. “But I do. You’re Fritz, aren’t you? I knew your father. I am Piwaka, Captain of the Guard.”
Fritz bowed and smiled. “I remember you now. Happily met. To what do we owe the honor of your call?”
Emily stepped forward. “We called Sasha and Frieda. Frieda is my sister, and Sasha is our friend. We need their help to finalize a peace agreement between all the Angondran factions.”
Fritz waved his hand toward the line of people behind him. “They are here. They will speak to you if they wish it.”
Emily glanced toward the line, and Aimee followed her gaze. She didn’t recognize anyone. All the Aqinas looked the same. They wore long white gowns with long ropey dark hair hanging down their backs. None of them had Frieda’s short crop of curls or her sharp black eyes.
At Fritz’s signal, another man came forward. He towered over Fritz, and his features showed a depth of understanding and experience Fritz couldn’t match. “This is my secondary. His name is Deek. He will speak for the people.”
Emily’s head whipped around. “Why will he speak for the people? You’re Alpha, not him.”
“The Aqinas acknowledge no Alpha,” Fritz replied. “Every Aqinas governs his own life. Deek speaks for the families in our world who have not come. They have empowered him to represent them here.”
Deek swept the group with his eyes. He nodded at Emily. “I recognize you from last time. You’re Frieda’s sister.”
Emily frowned. “What last time?”
Deek waved his hand toward the north. “The last time we met, near the canyon.”
Emily brightened up. “Do you mean when Fritz told us Frieda was with you? I didn’t know you were there.”
He nodded. “I was there. We were all there.”
Chris frowned. “Who was there?”
“Everyone,” he repeated.
Emily held up her hand between them. “Never mind. You speak for the Aqinas. These Alphas have been told all their lives the Aqinas instigate wars between their factions, only to create peace deals to manipulate others and further their own interests. We can’t make peace until we break down those old prejudices.”
Aquilla’s voice rang out over all the others. “We can make peace with anyone we choose. We don’t need them to do it.”
Piwaka stopped him with a hand on his arm. “We’ve waited a long time to clear the air with the Aqinas. Now is our chance to do it.”
“The Aqinas never wanted war between the factions,” Deek replied. “We never instigated anything. Those stories date back to the years when the Aqinas came to live in the water. The other factions made up those stories to explain why we left.”
“You can’t deny negotiating peace between warring factions,” Renier pointed out. “Some of us are old enough to remember that.”
“We don’t deny it,” Deek replied. “We negotiate peace when the factions asked us to do it.”
“And you can’t deny you benefited from those negotiations,” Donen put in.
Deek cocked his head. “When did we benefit from them? I challenge you to name one benefit we received for negotiating peace. The only benefit we received was to look out at our planet and see the factions living side by side with one another instead of slaughtering families and children and innocent bystanders.”
Donen flexed his arms and clenched his fists. “So you looked on and watched us, did you? I always knew it.”
Aria murmured someth
ing to him under her breath, but he rounded on her in a rage. “Don’t try to explain it away. They’ve been spying on us all these years. How do you think they know exactly where to find us when they want to twist us around their little fingers? They’ve been hiding out in their underwater caves and watching and waiting for the chance to use us.”
“Donen is right,” Renier added. “We don’t need the Aqinas. Let them crawl back under whatever rock they came out of. We can negotiate with the Avitras without them.”
“You can negotiate with the Avitras,” Anna replied, “but what’s the good of a peace agreement that doesn’t cover the whole planet? The Aqinas are Angondran, the same as you, and if they have some reason to instigate wars between the factions, the peace agreement won’t last. They should be included in this negotiation even if they don’t agree to our conditions.”
“What conditions?” Chris asked. “As far as I know, we haven’t set out any conditions for anybody.”
Aquilla stepped forward. “No one can negotiate with the Aqinas. They care only for themselves. They don’t care who gets killed or who fights whom. We can accomplish much more without them. You never should have called them.”
Piwaka spoke low to Aquilla. “It might be a good idea....”
Aquilla cut him off with a chop of his hand. “Forget it. I’m Alpha here, and the Avitras won’t be party to any agreement involving the Aqinas. If my Guards were here now, the way I wanted them to be, I would order them to wipe out the Aqinas here and now. Angondra would be better off without them.”
Deek rounded on Aquilla. “The Aqinas never wanted anything but peace for Angondra. You have only our history to prove it. The Aqinas never made war on anyone, and we’ve lived in peace in the water ever since our people broke into separate factions.”
“Please don’t fight here” Emily broke in. “We’ve had a hard time bringing the Avitras to this negotiation. Maybe you should go back to the water to avoid a fight. Then we could make peace with the Avitras. We can make peace with the Aqinas later.”
Aquilla whirled around and raised his hand to his mouth
Piwaka flew at him and tried to rip his hand away from his face, but he couldn’t reach Aquilla in time to stop a shrill screech echoing through the trees. “No!”
Chapter 15
In an instant, hundreds of Avitras swarmed out of the trees. Where had they been hiding? They flooded the glade and surrounded everyone, including the Avitras. Aquilla raised his hand to signal to them, but this time Piwaka was ready. He knocked Aquilla’s hand down and spun around to face the Guards. He positioned himself between them and Deek to shield the Aqinas with his body. He only spoke one word, but his hand signaled to the Guard in ways no one else could understand. “No!”
Aimee rushed forward. She faced the other Alphas and swept Donen, Caleb, and Renier with her eyes. She took in Faruk, Menlo, and Turk standing nearby. “The Aqinas came here because we called them. We came here to negotiate peace for all Angondra, and that includes the Aqinas. Are you going to stand by and let the Avitras wipe them out?”
She took her place at Piwaka’s side between the Aqinas and the Guards. “No one will lay a finger on the Aqinas as long as we’re here. They’re our invited guests. If you attack them, you’ll have to go through us first.”
The Avitras paid no attention to her, but at least she got the words out. They rang through the clearing with more force and determination than she felt in her heart. At first, no one made a move, and Aimee’s courage faltered. None of the others would stand up for the Aqinas. She and Piwaka would face the Avitras alone, and the Guard would obey Aquilla. He would override his decision to hand over power to Piwaka, and he would destroy their chance at peace.
Something shifted in the corner of her eye, and Renier moved out of line. He planted his legs wide next to Piwaka and pulled his short, curved blade from his belt. He chopped the air with it and let it dangle from his hand at his side. “We came here for peace, but the Aqinas are the only people here not carrying weapons.” He nodded to the Avitras Guards. “If you want to fight someone, you can fight me. You won’t fight a bunch of unarmed men and women.”
One by one, the others joined him. Caleb and Turk, Faruk and Emily, Aria and Carmen and Marissa—they all came forward and formed ranks between the Aqinas and Aquilla’s Guards. Aimee’s spirits soared, but in the end, it was Piwaka’s hand signals that drove the Avitras back. No words passed between the Guard and their Captain, but he told them something that made them turn against Aquilla.
Aquilla saw his advantage flagging, and he waved his arm to his Guards. “Attack!”
Piwaka made one more signal with his hand. The Guard stayed where they were, but the tension dissipated. They wouldn’t attack, no matter what Aquilla said. Piwaka was in charge for good now. Aquilla fumed and ranted, but no one moved or said a word.
A murmur rippled down the row of Aqinas. Then something made her spin around with a gasp. A short woman with black hair stepped out of the water onto the grass. The instant her foot hit the ground, she shivered and huddled over on herself. Her eyes took on a glassy sheen, and her face went blank. Chris turned around at the same moment. “Sasha! You came!”
Sasha nodded, but she barely looked Chris in the face. “I told you I would come if you called.”
Chris took her hand. “Help us. All we want is to make peace.”
“You have it already,” Sasha replied. “You don’t need the Aqinas for that.”
Aimee dropped her voice to keep Aquilla from hearing her. “There must be something we can do to avoid all this hostility.”
Just then, another figure broke out of the Aqinas line. Taller than Sasha, the same long ropes of hair hung down past the person’s shoulders, but the hips widened to reveal a female shape. Aimee looked closer and noticed a bump protruding under the white robe. She was pregnant.
Anna and Emily rushed forward, but Aimee got there first. “Frieda!”
Frieda put her foot on the grass and pulled it back as though it was burned. She hesitated to leave the water. She scanned the scene, and a shadow of doubt crossed her face.
“How have you been, Frieda?” Emily asked. “We’ve been so worried about you.”
“You had nothing to worry about. I’m fine.” Frieda spoke so softly they leaned forward to hear her.
“We thought you got stuck with the Aqinas,” Anna told her. “We didn’t know what to think.”
Frieda shook herself. “Fritz told you I was happy where I was. He told you I chose to stay with the Aqinas of my own free will. You can believe him.”
Anna frowned. “How did you know that?”
Frieda fixed her sister with a piercing stare. “I was there.”
Emily gasped. “You were there? You were there when Fritz told us you were alive and living with the Aqinas? Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you speak to me? I traveled all that way to find you....”
Frieda cut her off with a shake of her head. “I couldn’t leave the water. I won’t leave the water, not even for you.”
Emily dropped her eyes to the ground where Frieda stood up to her ankles in the foaming spring. “How can we trust the Aqinas when we don’t understand them? We need you and Sasha to explain them to us.”
“Nothing we could say would make sense to you,” Frieda replied. “The Aqinas are the only people on this planet capable of living in peace. The water gives them the peace you all crave so much. You can’t understand it on land. Everything is warm and comfortable there, and the water gives you everything you need.”
Emily looked around. “That’s what Sasha said last time.”
“You didn’t believe her then, either, did you?” Frieda asked. “The Aqinas world is too different from this world to understand. It has to be experienced to be understood. I found that out for myself.”
Anna surveyed Frieda’s pregnant body from her feet up to her hair. “You certainly look well, Frieda. Whatever they’re f
eeding you there agrees with you. I can see that.”
Frieda shook her head. Not even Anna’s compliments could penetrate the veil separating her from her own family. Chris shot a glance at Fritz. “How can we be certain the Aqinas won’t interfere in our affairs in the future?”
Sasha shuddered. Her lips trembled with cold, and her teeth chattered. “We would never interfere in your affairs if you didn’t call us to do it. No Aqinas would leave the water if they could avoid it. Ask anyone.” She nodded toward the line, but she didn’t gesture with her hands. She clutched her arms around her in bitter cold, even though the air was mild.
“You and your people will never understand the Aqinas,” Deek broke in. “Frieda said you would misinterpret our watching you as a hostile act.”
“I tried to explain it many times,” Frieda added. “Only another person who came from the land could make you understand.” A sob escaped her. “I thought I would have to leave the water to explain it to you.”
Emily surveyed her sister up and down. Her lips turned blue, and she shivered, too. “Why don’t you explain it to us now?”
Frieda shook her head. “You think the Aqinas spied on you by watching you when you didn’t know they were looking, but it doesn’t work that way. The water brings us information about everything it touches. The water creates a seamless connection between everyone so nothing is hidden. It does the same thing with the people on land.”
“How can it do that?” Aimee asked. “The water isn’t touching us.”
“The rain falls on you and runs into the rivers,” Frieda replied. “The same water evaporates from the ocean and rises into the clouds and falls again as rain. It’s all one water. It touches you and carries your signal to us in the ocean.”
“So you understand everything about us,” Anna remarked. “Nothing we do or say or think is hidden from you.”
Frieda closed her eyes. Every word required a superhuman effort. “We can’t stop it. We couldn’t close our eyes to it even if we wanted to. The water surrounds us and touches every inch of our skin. It penetrates our cells and brings its signal into our minds and into our blood.”
Rohn (Dragons of Kratak Book 1) Page 69