by Vi Voxley
No, the real terror in her heart came from Kol-Eresh and the bond between them.
Back on Terra, Jackie had been very close to making her peace with the hand destiny had dealt her. Then Forack had figured out the way to save her. She was in love. She was safe, she could see the finish line. To have everything ripped from her grip at that moment was so cruel that Jackie felt bitter tears in her eyes.
Fresh air should have been a blessing, but it was not. Jackie had no idea how many Eternals there were or how many had decided to follow her through the ship. Hearing the haunting clawing behind her, she knew she had no choice but to make a run for it.
A hand grabbed out for her, narrowly missing as Jackie dashed into the daylight.
She didn't look back. She didn't even know whether she was running in the right direction. None of it mattered. All Jackie could think of were Kol-Eresh's words about reinforcements. They had to be coming and all she had to do was keep away from the Eternals until then.
There was a pounding behind her, the ground shaking beneath her feet like something incredibly heavy was running.
It was straight out of nightmares.
When Jackie heard Kol-Eresh's roar behind her, she couldn't help turning around, just for a second. The sight nearly made her scream, if she hadn't been that terrified.
There were four Abominations, all resembling dogs, but on an enormous scale. And four Eternals too. They were tall, incredibly tall men with mechanical arms strapped to their backs. Some of those extensions were wielding weapons.
The Eternals were coming her way with a slow, almost bored pace now and Jackie could see why.
The path she'd chosen was blocked by a steep drop she hadn't seen before.
Jackie backed away, seeing one of the Abominations run her way, jaws opened like it wanted to bite her in half. She raised the small blade in her defense, but the creature never reached her.
With a furious battle cry, Kol-Eresh jumped five feet into the air and grabbed a hold of the mechanical beast. Jackie couldn't tear her eyes away from her fated as the harbinger ran along the dog's wide back, the sword held in both hands. When he reached the head, Kol-Eresh buried the sword to the hilt between the creature's eyes.
It bellowed like it was actually wounded. The cry was deep and loud. Jackie had to cover her eyes as she watched the Abomination trying to shake Kol-Eresh off.
The harbinger's eyes were burning with fury. He held on, pulling the sword out and driving it back inside. Sparks flew from the Abomination’s head as it scratched at him.
As the last resort, the Abomination threw itself on its back, throwing Kol-Eresh free at last. The harbinger was on his feet before Jackie could blink, running back to stop the creature. She saw the wide arc of his tall blade cutting through the air and the helldog stumbled, two of its front legs cut straight off.
Kol-Eresh cut off its head with a blow that had to shatter every bone in his arm. Jackie could practically see the knock-back when the sword connected with the hard metal the Abomination was made off.
Miraculously, it still died, but Jackie could see Kol-Eresh's hand shaking a little from the force of the strike.
"Kol!" she screamed, pointing to the Eternals.
"Deal with him," one of them ordered, coming toward her alone while the other three engaged the harbinger.
Jackie's heart dropped. Every man who'd ever fought the Eternals was dead. She backed away from the last one, approaching her with a purposeful stride now.
She wanted to scream, to tell Kol-Eresh that she loved him. The words refused to come over her lips. It wasn't over yet. It wasn't over until she kept fighting, that was all she could do.
Up close, the Eternal towered above her. The man was much taller than Kol-Eresh, who dwarfed most Nayanors. His eyes were pure black, without the whites or a colored iris. The silver hair that all Nayanors had was ashen like dirty snow that fell after a fire.
When he leaned down, Jackie could hear the obsidian armor move and adjust. The hands on the Eternal's back grabbed her.
Over the Eternal's shoulder, Jackie could see Kol-Eresh roaring. Outnumbered, he'd still managed to bring one of the warriors down. The Eternal laid on the ground, moving slowly as if he didn't really register what had just happened to him.
"Jackie!" the harbinger roared.
"Pay no attention to your fated," the Eternal who was holding her said and Jackie's eyes flickered back to him. "You will be better soon."
"Better?" she coughed, held so tightly by the mechanical claws she was choking. "You're killing us! Why!? Why are you killing Terrans?"
The Eternal looked at her oddly, a strange expression his face as if he didn't really understand what she was saying.
"We are not killing you," he said, pulling a small vial from his armor. "At least not on purpose. Dying is an unfortunate side effect of the serum. We are working to fix it. We believe you will not die."
Jackie struggled with all her might, trying to pull free.
"Is that what you believed with the other women too?" she asked. "That it would be safe for them? Why? What are you doing to us!?"
"We're trying to heal you," the Eternal said. "Open your mouth, female."
Jackie was torn between wanting to squeeze her mouth shut and to yell everything she felt at the warrior. She opted for something in between. Covering her mouth with her hands the best she could, Jackie tried one more time to reason with the warrior.
"Heal us from what?" she asked. "There's nothing wrong with us!"
"You don't give us daughters," the Eternal said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Our world is dying. We've given it so much, and yet it keeps on withering. With daughters, our species can be great again. Terrans bring weakness into the mix, but we can fix you. The serum is meant to make you able to bear female children."
Jackie stared at him, unable to believe her ears.
"Us?" she shouted. "It's not us!"
The Eternal didn't seem to be listening. He pried her mouth open. Jackie screamed, but the sound was muffled by the cold armored fingers holding her jaws apart.
One of the mechanical hands emptied the serum into her mouth. Jackie tried to spit it out, but the Eternal quickly closed her mouth and held her head until she'd swallowed the bitter liquid. It tasted like death itself. Jackie thought she was going to vomit.
The Eternal dropped her to the ground. Jackie tried to get up, but her body refused to obey her. The serum was running in her veins, she could feel it. Her blood felt like it was crawling with something that wasn't supposed to be there.
"What did you mean, female?" the Eternal asked.
Jackie hadn't realized the bastard who'd tried to kill her hadn't left yet. She stared up at the ancient warrior, tears running down her cheeks.
"It's not us!" she yelled. "We are not the problem! Why are you trying to cure humans? We have no problem having daughters on Terra, with Terran men! How can you not see the problem is with Nayanors!?"
"The wombs are in your body," the Eternal said, but Jackie could see the warrior wasn't so certain anymore.
"That doesn't matter," Jackie wheezed, coughing. "We carry babies, but it's the seed that's wrong!"
The Eternal was staring at her like she'd just dropped from the sky. Then he turned on his heel without a word and marched back to the others.
Jackie propped herself up on her elbows just in time to see Kol-Eresh break away from the attackers. He dodged out of the way of the third and came toward her, running.
With the last of her strength, Jackie stood. She closed her eyes, knowing what was going to happen. It was going to hurt, but it didn't matter.
The harbinger pulled her into his arms and jumped. The Eternals missed them by inches and they went tumbling together again. This time, there was almost no way for Kol-Eresh to protect her from the first heavy crash against the ground but then Jackie was sliding down the rock wall on top of her fated.
The drop to the bottom was hard. Jackie cried out,
feeling at least one of her ribs crack. Kol-Eresh took a much harsher blow from the ground, but the harbinger barely grunted.
They both looked up first, but the Eternals weren't following.
Jackie sat down, resting her head against the wall. Blood was trickling from her hair into her eyes, but she didn't even care about that. She wanted to cry, but the tears didn't come.
It was over. Just like that.
Eighteen
Kol-Eresh
Kol-Eresh had received his diadon at the age of nine.
He'd been one of the youngest warriors to ever have that honor. Even Nayanors weren't mad enough to do complicated surgery on children, but Kol-Eresh had been headstrong even as a small boy.
Never in his life had the diamond in his chest worked as hard as it did right now.
The fight with the Eternals had been brutal. Kol-Eresh had faced some mighty fighters in his days. There were men he reluctantly considered equals on Luminos. There had been enemies who had earned the honor of having their trophies stored in the gallery of his ship.
The Eternals were above all of them. Every second the harbinger had done battle with the ancient warriors had been one long last moment, pregnant with the possibility that it would be him lying dead on the ground next. It had been the longest he'd ever had to fight for real, using every trick he knew, every ounce of strength in his mighty body.
Kol-Eresh was beginning to understand how the Eternals left such casualties behind.
He'd imagined them as old and insane, but the Eternals were nothing like that. They were sharp and the long years of their life had just made them deadlier. Kol-Eresh finally believed the thing most of the galaxy knew about Nayanors – that they had the potential to be immortal.
With all that, the cruelest blow the gods had dealt to him was sitting on the ground before his feet.
The look in Jackie's eyes, which had been full of life that very morning, was cold and empty. She was staring at the horizon without appearing to see a thing. The sadness around her was indescribable, like someone had knocked the spirit out of her but hadn't killed her yet.
"Jackie," the harbinger said quietly. "Jackie, can you hear me?"
"I hear you," his fated said.
Her voice matched the hopeless look in her eyes as Jackie turned his way. The devastation broke Kol-Eresh's heart.
"It's over, right?" Jackie asked. "This is it. The diadon can't combat the serum?"
"I don't know," Kol-Eresh admitted. "There are only a handful of women who have ever worn a diadon on Luminos and you are the first to be subjected to the serum. I have no idea whether it makes you resistant to it or not."
"But the odds are not good, are they?" Jackie asked.
He'd failed. He'd failed to keep his fated safe. The thought, the realization beat in Kol-Eresh's head as he looked at Jackie. Every little thing that had happened to them since the moment they'd met made him think he should never have brought his female to Luminos. All of Forack’s hard work to cure her was gone.
He should have left Jackie on his ship until they'd dealt with the Eternals. The shame of missing the long night would have been unbearable, but he would have avoided this.
Kol-Eresh didn't want to think about the odds. The harbinger didn't believe they were in their favor and if they had to stand in his way, he preferred not to let them poison his mind.
He knelt down on one knee before Jackie.
"I promised you," he told her firmly. "I know you feel hopeless right now, but this is not the end. As long as we can still fight, it's not over."
Jackie laughed mirthlessly.
"I am so tired," she said. "Not just the physical toll it takes on me, but the mental one as well. I can't keep gaining and losing hope. Anything is better than to be disappointed on such a deep level over and over again."
"No," Kol-Eresh said.
"No?" Jackie asked, ready to tell him all about pain and sadness, but he knew plenty.
"Nothing is worse than losing you," Kol-Eresh said. "Disappointments are a part of life. There are many on Luminos. I've lived through more than one and this is by far the worst, but I would take this moment of weakness over a defeat any day. And we are not there yet."
The harbinger pulled Jackie into his arms and held her there as the female clung to him.
"I will find a cure for you if I have to carve it out of the hearts of those bastards," Kol-Eresh snarled. "Then I will make them pay for all the pain they've caused, to you and to all the other females."
Jackie nodded, her broken sobs growing rarer and rarer until she finally raised her head from his chest, looking Kol-Eresh in the eye. Her gaze was still dark and sad, but the light hadn’t entirely gone out yet. She took a deep breath and flashed him a brave smile. It didn't look like she felt it, but the fact that she was prepared to try was all he needed.
They waited there for Forack, who had chosen to come with another ship behind them and therefore escaped the slaughter. The healer's face was dark as he exited the ship, though.
"To attack a harbinger's ship," he told Kol-Eresh. "The Eternals aren't afraid of anyone anymore."
"They're not," Kol-Eresh agreed. "Don't worry about them. I'll make sure you don't fall victim to their blades. Luminos needs you too much."
Forack glared at him.
"I won't be hidden away like a female," the healer said. "Just because I don't carry a sword around doesn't mean I can't defend myself. And don't you even consider arguing on that, Harbinger. Now, where is my patient?"
Jackie came closer, moving slowly like she was in a dream. Kol-Eresh didn't like Forack's first reaction one bit. The healer's features tensed like he was turning to stone under his very eyes. That was how the healer usually looked when he had to deliver Kol-Eresh bad news.
"Come here, Jackie," the healer said instead, gesturing for her to sit on the ramp of the ship. "Look at me."
"What are you searching for?" the harbinger asked, observing Forack moving around Jackie, regarding the female from every angle.
"The first signs," the healer replied. "The purple eyes and everything else."
"The symptoms don't usually appear until after a few days," Kol-Eresh argued.
"Just to be sure," Forack said. "I have a theory."
"Tell me," Kol-Eresh ordered, his deep voice rough and threatening.
He didn't usually descend to such blatant posturing, but Forack enjoyed talking in riddles way too much for the harbinger's liking.
"I really don't think I should," Forack said. "How are you feeling, Jackie?"
The female smiled tiredly.
"Like a balloon that's been poked and is bleeding air," she said. "I guess it's not good."
"Keep your spirits up," Forack suggested. "We don't know anything yet."
"I want to hear that theory too," Jackie stated firmly, not taking her beautiful eyes from the healer. "The way you said it, it didn't sound good."
"All the more reason why I shouldn't bother you with baseless conjecture," Forack argued.
"Kol?" Jackie asked, looking his way.
The harbinger hesitated. Everyone had warned him not to coddle Jackie. And whatever Forack had to say, it couldn't be worse than what had already happened. The unthinkable had come to find them. Disaster had struck at the moment when he'd been about to take Jackie to safety from all the dangers of his world.
Deep down, Kol-Eresh wanted to know. He hadn't considered it until that moment, but all the problems with the bond between them hadn't just affected his fated. The harbinger was tired as well, tired of the exact same thing that was bothering Jackie – the unknown.
"Speak, Forack," he said. "That's an order."
The healer pulled a face, but Kol-Eresh hadn't gotten to his position by letting lesser men bully him into inaction.
"My theory is that the diadon might be helping spread the serum faster and increasing its potency," Forack admitted. "The device is created to protect and boost the body, but we don't know what the serum does. If it
has qualities that are meant to enhance something, they might be messing with her system very soon."
"I know what it does."
Jackie's voice cut through the air like a knife. Both Kol-Eresh and Forack stared.
"How?" the healer asked suspiciously.
"The Eternal told me," Jackie explained. "He said they weren't trying to kill women. They are trying to come up with a way to make us have daughters. I told him it's insane to try and cure us, when Nayanors are clearly the faulty part, but I guess that didn't occur to those geniuses before."
Kol-Eresh was too stunned to comprehend her words at first, until Forack's stony silence brought him back to the conversation.
"Forack?" he asked. "Thoughts?"
"If this is true," the healer said slowly. "It confirms some of my other ideas, but that's not important. This is partly the reason why I thought the serum could have some enhancing qualities. The Eternals really aren't trying to kill the females. They're trying to mess with human biology in ways the females simply can't handle.
"That is why they're dying. That is why the serum no longer causes pain, but gives them a merciful death. The females are test subjects and the Eternals haven't gotten it right yet."
There were so many uncertainties in his world. Kol-Eresh wasn't used to living without a purpose, without a concrete purpose in sight.
The crystalline clarity washed over him. Whether Forack was right or not, whatever was happening to Jackie, it made no difference in the end. It was obvious to him that his fated had taken one too many blows to be able to survive.
Kol-Eresh didn't want Jackie to live one day at a time, wondering each night if she was going to wake up in the morning.
There was no other way. He had to do the impossible – locate the Eternals and have them cure Jackie, no matter the cost.
"Bring me a ship," he ordered Forack. "I'm going to find the Eternals before the long night."