Haven 6

by Aubrie Dionne

  “You’re telling me.”

  “And I thought my life on the ship was bad.”

  Striver gave her a ques­tion­ing look, but he didn’t fol­low up with any ques­tions, so Eri let the topic drop. “What do we do now?”

  “We wait,” Striver whispered, set­tling down on an up­turned root.

  “How long?” Eri already felt suf­foc­ated by the un­der­side of the roots and the high wa­ter. She couldn’t ima­gine spend­ing a night cramped in­side the tree.

  “As long as it takes.”

  “Ugh.” Eri’s legs ached. She couldn’t stay bent over like this forever. Join­ing Striver on the root, she gave up, let­ting the murky wa­ter seep around her to her waist. She checked her loc­ator for Litus’s life sig­nal. So far, his heart still beat.

  Striver took her wrist in his and ran his fin­gers along the screen. “Did this hurt?”

  Eri laughed. “Not at all. Doc­tors at­tach the loc­at­ors to us at birth. The plastic is ac­tu­ally syn­thetic bone, which grows along with the bone in our wrists. I’m sorry if it both­ers you. I can’t take it off.”

  His fin­gers brushed along the keypad, con­tinu­ing up her arm. “No, no. I’m curi­ous, that’s all. It’s a part of you, and I don’t want to change who you are.”

  Sud­denly, the hu­mid air in the hol­low tree grew hot, al­most suf­foc­at­ing. Eri changed the sub­ject. “I was check­ing Litus’s vi­tal signs. What do you think’s wrong with him?” She stretched her legs un­til her toes hit the other side of the roots. Her knees were still bent, but it felt good to re­lax her muscles.

  “Some sort of in­fec­tion.” Striver pulled his arm away and shook his head. “I’m not sure. Could be the side ef­fects of the coma dart. Some people have an al­ler­gic re­ac­tion to the poison.”

  Eri sup­pressed a rising cur­rent of panic. Litus was a strong young man. He could with­stand a lot. “Did you man­age to re­cover our med­ical equip­ment from the scout ship?”

  “We took sev­eral con­tain­ers, but I’m not sure what’s in any of them. Like I said, we don’t use tech­no­logy.”

  “When we get back to the vil­lage, I’ll go through what you have and see if I can find our tis­sue re­gen­er­ator.”

  “So many gad­gets.” Striver handed her his wa­ter pouch. “What does that one do?”

  Eri was sur­prised he showed in­terest, con­sid­er­ing how he felt about tech­no­logy. “Re­pairs dam­aged cells in our bod­ies. Why?”

  “Just think­ing.” Striver’s voice trailed off. “You care for Litus, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do.” Eri brought the pouch to her lips and sipped, cool­ness trick­ling down her raw throat.

  “Is he your lifemate?”

  Her throat con­stric­ted and she choked on the wa­ter, spit­ting it out into the swamp muck. “No. Litus is my sis­ter’s lifemate. Everything I do, I do for her.”

  Striver sat si­lently for sev­eral heart­beats and she wished she could see his fea­tures bet­ter in the shad­ows. “I see.” His voice was hushed, yet in­tense.

  “I don’t know why I’m try­ing so hard. She doesn’t even seem to like him. I guess I’m hop­ing she’ll grow to. I want her to be happy.” Eri knew she shouldn’t have said it, but she trus­ted Striver, and this wasn’t the first time she’d con­fided in him. She needed to get her frus­tra­tion off her chest, any­way.

  “What about you, Eri. Do you like your lifemate?” Striver voice was soft and care­ful.

  Eri swal­lowed hard. “I don’t have one. I’m the only fe­male in my gen­er­a­tion without a lifemate.”

  “For Refuge’s sake, why?”

  She’d told him so much already, what was a little more? Eri doubted he’d look at her any dif­fer­ently, even though every­one on the Her­itage did ex­cept Aquaria. “I’m the product of an il­legal pair­ing. My par­ents got to­gether be­fore their lifemates were chosen.”

  “That’s hor­rible.” Striver pat­ted her hand. “I mean, not that they got to­gether, but that it pre­ven­ted you from hav­ing a lifemate.”

  “I don’t blame them. I love them both very much.”

  “What happened to their love?”

  “They were placed with dif­fer­ent lifemates. Aquaria, my half sis­ter, shares my mom. Al­though my par­ents aren’t to­gether any­more, I’m proud to be a product of love, not one of sci­ence. I guess it’s the rebel in­side of me, passed down through my par­ents. It’s pretty cool, ex­cept for the way every­one looks at me like I’m some kind of freak.”

  “You’re not a freak. You’re prob­ably the most nor­mal per­son on the Her­it­age.”

  Eri laughed. “Nor­mal to you, not them.”

  Striver ran his thumb over the back of her hand. Her skin tingled un­der­neath his touch.

  “Do you want a lifemate?”

  “Are you kid­ding? It’s one of my dreams. Be­sides find­ing a bet­ter job. Lin­guist was not my first choice.” Al­though her job had earned her a seat on the ex­plor­at­ory team. It had brought her to him.

  He squeezed her hand. “I’m so sorry. I’m all for rules and a struc­tured so­ci­ety, but the more I hear about your life aboard the ship, the more I want to take you away from it.”

  Eri leaned in, half ex­cited, half afraid. What if she wanted to go with him? “Take me where?”

  His hand traveled from her hand to her chin. He cupped her cheek in his palm. He opened his mouth to reply, and she pressed into his touch.

  The wa­ter splashed out­side their tree and someone brushed aside the veil of moss. Ri­ley poked his head in. “Coast is clear.”

  How long had they been un­der the roots? Tear­ing her­self away from Striver, Eri got up and walked to the hole. “You sure?”

  “I sneaked out and scouted around. No one’s here but us and a whole lot of muck.”

  Eri looked over her shoulder to Striver and he nod­ded en­cour­agingly. But she didn’t want to leave. Not yet. They had been in the midst of some­thing im­port­ant, mo­ment­ous, at least in Eri’s world—even if she didn’t know ex­actly what it was. Striver never did get to an­swer her ques­tion, and she had so much more left ask.

  “Well, are you com­ing out, or are you go­ing to make a home in there along with the weasel worms?” Ri­ley sighed and shook his head.

  “We’re com­ing,” Striver growled as he stood up from the root. When he pulled back the rest of the moss in front of her, his face looked resigned to obey Ri­ley, but his gaze smoldered with in­terest, mak­ing Eri’s cheeks burn. “After you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Homecoming

  Re­lief charged through Striver as the bristly spikes of the wall towered over the trees be­low the ridge. Not only was he com­ing home, but if Phoenix made it back safely, Weaver would be there as well. Even though they’d be hold­ing his brother against his will, Striver felt like his fam­ily was com­plete once again. As com­plete as it could be without Father.

  “We’re al­most there.” He hef­ted his back­pack, ig­nor­ing the pain in his muscles. The Law­less stilled trailed their scent, and they couldn’t af­ford to let up their pace.

  “Good, be­cause I don’t think he can take an­other step.” Ri­ley hois­ted Litus’s arm across his shoulders. Mars braced his other side, sweat drip­ping from her fore­head.

  “I can make it.” Litus spoke through grit­ted teeth.

  “We’re al­most there, and once we get to the vil­lage, I’ll find the cell re­gen­er­ator.” Eri walked be­side them, touch­ing Litus’s hand.

  Litus turned his head in her dir­ec­tion and spoke un­der his breath. “I need to con­tact the com­mander.”

  “After you re­cover,” Eri pressed.

  No­ti­cing Eri’s re­luct­ance, Striver de­cided to push the is­sue with Litus. “We don’t have time. We’ll be safe once we cross the wall.” Striver turned and pushed ahead, won­der­ing why Litus was so eage
r to talk with the com­mander and why Eri delayed it. Striver had won this round, but it still seemed as though a war hung im­min­ent in the air. Maybe it was just the gi­ant mother boar of a ship hov­er­ing over their heads, but un­ease sat like a sharp rock in his gut des­pite their home­com­ing.

  Leaves rained around them as Guard­i­ans fell from the sky, meet­ing their party in a semi­circle of iri­des­cent feath­ers. The Guard­i­ans must have spot­ted them a kilo­meter away. Striver had ex­pec­ted some sort of greet­ing, but still, re­lief flowed through him with the fa­mil­iar sight of Phoenix’s wing­span block­ing the blind­ing rays of sun.

  Mars muttered un­der her breath, “Oh no, here we go again.”

  Phoenix landed last at the circle’s arc. Al­though the Guard­i­ans had no chosen leader, Striver guessed Phoenix in­flu­enced most of the de­cisions. He was over three hun­dred years old and one of the ori­ginal hatch­lings from the eggs brought to Refuge by Ar­ies and Striker.

  “Greet­ings, Striver and friends.” Phoenix bowed and his fel­low Guard­i­ans fol­lowed, feath­ers ruff­ling as they fol­ded their wings be­hind them.

  “Hello, Phoenix.” Striver turned back to the oth­ers, they didn’t have time for formal greet­ings. “You met Phoenix briefly in the swamp. The oth­ers are Raven, Dove, Eagle, and Glider. They’re here to help.”

  To his re­lief, Eri bowed and the oth­ers fol­lowed. At least her team was treat­ing them civilly.

  Striver wasted no time. He had to know. “Is Weaver safe?”

  Phoenix straightened and nod­ded, his eyes se­rene as the sur­face of a lake. “He’s in cap­tiv­ity. Guards watch over him. He’ll speak to no one, but he’s phys­ic­ally un­harmed.”

  Striver rubbed his chin, deep in thought. He’d have his hands full when he re­turned. “Thank you for tak­ing care of him.”

  “My pleas­ure. Your an­cest­ors brought us here and gave us life. Pro­tect­ing their off­spring is the least we can do. You know that.”

  “Yes, but I ap­pre­ci­ate your ef­forts all the same.” Striver smiled be­fore turn­ing back to the oth­ers. “We’re eager to get back. Law­less still hunt us, even this close to the bor­der. Litus isn’t feel­ing well, and the rest of us are weary and hungry.”

  “That is why we’ve come.” Phoenix had a glint in his eye. “We’re re­ceived per­mis­sion from the coun­cil to fly you over the wall.”

  “So they couldn’t fly us over when we left to get my team, but they can fly us over now?” Eri put her hands on her hips, eye­ing them skep­tic­ally.

  Striver opened his mouth to re­spond, but Phoenix put his long fin­gers on Striver’s arm. “Let me ex­plain.” He turned to Eri. “We are a peace­ful spe­cies, and we dis­cour­age any act of vi­ol­ence or any­thing that might en­cour­age war. We also have no wish to rule. The coun­cil de­cides the fate of our vil­lage, and the Guard­i­ans are un­der their dis­cre­tion. Without their per­mis­sion, we can’t help you if you cross into Law­less lands. But I’ve ob­tained their per­mis­sion to carry you back over the wall.”

  “No way,” Mars erup­ted be­hind him. “No way I’m let­ting one of those…bird­men touch me.”

  “Fine.” Striver reached into his back­pack and pulled out a coil of rope. He threw it at her feet. “Have fun.”

  He scanned the nervous faces of the oth­ers. “Any­one else?”

  Eri shook her head. Her eyes were steady, but un­der the tough ex­ter­ior, her hands trembled. Striver brushed her arm, whis­per­ing un­der his breath. “Don’t worry. I’ve done this a thou­sand times.”

  “I trust you.” Eri met his gaze and the in­tens­ity between them deepened. Long­ings res­on­ated in­side him, and he turned away be­fore the urges grew out of con­trol.

  Branches cracked and shouts pierced the woods be­hind them. Striver whirled around. “We must go now!”

  “Wait!” Mars’s voice wavered. She kicked back his rope. “I’ll go.”

  “Ex­cel­lent. You will not be dis­ap­poin­ted.” Phoenix spread his wings and the other Guard­i­ans fol­lowed. Each of them took their place be­hind a hu­man in pre­flight form­a­tion. Striver glanced at Eri and smiled. You can do this.

  The Guard­i­ans’ wrapped their branch­like arms around each hu­man’s waist. Phoenix lif­ted Striver, and in a heart­beat the pair broke through the can­opy and soared. Be­low them, ar­rows from the Law­less arched up and fell short, plum­met­ing back to the can­opy of trees.

  Wind whipped Striver’s hair back and cooled his warm cheeks. Free­dom and ex­cite­ment pulsed through his veins. He glanced over as Eri, flown by Dove, broke free of the trees. His chest burst with pride as he shared this ex­per­i­ence with her and her team. Sure, they’d flown in space their whole lives, but noth­ing com­pared to rid­ing the air cur­rents above the lush ve­get­a­tion on Refuge.

  Eri spread her arms in the air as if she had wings. He could pic­ture her as an an­gel, des­cen­ded from the sky to save him and his people. If only that were true.

  She turned her head and blinked as she caught him star­ing. Dove hois­ted Eri higher in the air. Striver wondered if the Guard­ian showed off just a little to make a good im­pres­sion. Hu­mans were prone to flaunt­ing, but Guard­i­ans, he could only guess.

  Tree huts pro­truded from the lush green­ery like mush­rooms. Even though he’d only left days ago, it felt like ages had passed since he’d been home. What will Mother think of what Weaver has be­come? Can we con­vince him to stay?

  His stom­ach pitched as Phoenix dove for the middle of the vil­lage. They landed ef­fort­lessly, and his feet touched the ground as if he weighed no more than one of their feath­ers. The rest of the Guard­i­ans landed be­side him. Mars’s face was green as the grass, but ex­hil­ar­a­tion lit Eri’s fea­tures, bring­ing out her beauty. Striver’s heart quickened. Maybe she’ll like it here on Refuge after all?

  The vil­la­gers in his tribe des­cen­ded from their tree huts to meet them, car­ry­ing wa­ter pouches and fruits. Riptide ran to Ri­ley and he em­braced her, twirl­ing her around.

  At least she’s not run­ning to me.

  “Done it again, have you?” Carven came up be­hind him and punched him in the arm. His face had color, and he looked well res­ted and fed. Striver laughed, the sight of his friend calm­ing him.

  “We res­cued the re­main­ing pris­on­ers, but no sign of the weapons,” Striver whispered un­der his breath, ac­cept­ing a hand­ful of nuts from a little girl.

  “Still reason to cel­eb­rate. You’ve re­turned un­harmed and made friends with the own­ers of that hulk in the sky. Be­sides, the vil­la­gers need some­thing to lift their spir­its. Ever since that ship de­cided to park over our turf they’ve been anxious.”

  Striver mur­mured un­der his breath, “They have good reason to be.”

  Carven put his arm around him and smiled. “We’ll have a feast with dan­cing to­night.”

  Riptide’s head whirled around when Carven men­tioned dan­cing. Striver avoided eye con­tact, guid­ing Carven to the woods be­hind them for pri­vacy.

  “Fine. But not in my honor, not again.” Not with Weaver here.

  “Okay, we’ll honor our new friends.”

  “And Weaver?”

  Carven shrugged. “You can try to talk to him your­self, but I don’t think he’ll join in the fest­iv­it­ies.”

  A bomb sank in Striver’s stom­ach. How was he ever go­ing to con­vince his brother to stay on their side?

  Carven clapped him on the back and turned him around to the rest of the vil­lage. “Here’s one of our new friends now.”

  Eri smiled as she joined them, but her face turned ser­i­ous a mo­ment later. “Ex­cuse me, but my team­mate is very sick and needs a place to rest.”

  “Of course.” Carven ges­tured over his head, and mem­bers of the tribe eased Litus onto a stretcher they’d car­ried from one of the stor­age huts.
Striver thought she’d go with him, but Eri tugged on Carven’s arm. “I need to go through what you salvaged of our sup­plies. I’m hop­ing to find a device to help him.”

  “Cer­tainly.” Carven re­leased Striver and offered Eri his arm. “Come with me.”

  “Thank you.” She jogged to the vil­la­gers car­ry­ing Litus away. “Take care of him.”

  An elder from the coun­cil nod­ded. “He’s in good hands.”

  “Thank you.” Eri moved to leave, but she hal­ted in mid­step. She turned to Striver, and the way her eyes sparkled made him feel like he was the only man on Refuge. “See you later.” It soun­ded more like a prom­ise than a state­ment.

  “I hope you find what you’re look­ing for.”

  Eri wiped a smudge of mud off her cheek. Her shoulders slumped with wear­i­ness, and Striver curbed the urge to com­fort and em­brace her. “I hope so, too.”

  Striver watched Eri leave, won­der­ing when he’d get an­other chance to be alone with her. There was so much he wanted to ask her, so much he still didn’t know. But his du­ties as leader came first. He had to tend to the vil­la­gers’ wor­ries and his brother’s broken spirit first.

  …

  Eri dug through the con­tain­ers, throw­ing out broken pieces of equip­ment. She’d trained in the med­ical bay for two days be­fore the mis­sion, learn­ing how to work all of the life-sav­ing devices. At the time she didn’t think she’d ever use the know­ledge.

  Cy­ber­hell, I wish I’d paid at­ten­tion.

  A small ob­long device poked from the pile and she pulled it out, flip­ping up the lid. The screen blinked on, fluor­es­cent green light il­lu­min­at­ing the in­side of the tree hut where they’d stashed the sup­plies. Words flashed by.

  READY TO SCAN SUB­JECT.

  “Did you find it?” Carven shouted from out­side. Eri wondered if he’d stayed for her own safety or to spy. At least he’d given her pri­vacy to go through their sup­plies without breath­ing over her shoulder.

  Her hands shook as she held it. It calmed her to hold a rem­nant of tech­no­logy in such a wild, sav­age place. The plastic was so white, so pre­fect com­pared to her mud-caked skin. “I think so.”