"I've seen the way he looks at you. Even when you are standing as far away from us as you can get and not saying anything to us, he does everything he can to move closer to you or to sneak glances your way. It's obvious that he's thinking about you."
Chapter Four
"Look at this."
Lynx touched the loose bit of the desk that he had discovered again. He pushed harder into it and wiggled it slightly to test just how loose it actually was. Pyra approached him from across the dark office.
"What did you find?"
"I'm not sure," Lynx said, managing to move the piece of wood lose enough that he could stick the top of his blade into it and start to pry it away from the desk.
It suddenly gave a creak and the rest of the seam seemed to open on its own as if his movements had released something. He moved his hands along the piece and pulled with both of them, revealing that the loose piece had actually be a long, narrow drawer that had been sitting in place in the desk for so long while the people of the settlement were locked by the Covra that it had sealed itself.
The bottom of the drawer looked slightly wrinkled as if the lining had shrunk over time, and Lynx tucked the tips of his fingers under the edge of the thick, fragile-feeling paper to lift it away. As he tried to move it, though, the discolored paper crumbled in his hands. He suddenly felt the urge to pull his hands back to prevent the dust of the aged paper from touching his skin. It was a completely outlandish reaction and one that didn't make any sense, but he was unnerved by the drawer and the sudden catastrophic destruction of the paper.
"What is that?" Pyra asked.
"The lining of the drawer just fell apart," Lynx replied, shaking his hand to dislodge some of the paper dust that had gotten onto his skin.
"No, not that," Pyra said, stepping closer so that he nearly pushed the smaller, younger warrior out of the way, "There's something under the lining. It's like the people were hiding it with the lining."
The leader of the warriors took either side of the drawer and pulled it the entire way out of the desk. The people of the settlement would not have had the ability to hold the drawer like that, but Pyra's tremendous arm length and massive strength made it possible for him to pull the drawer out of its place and tip it over so that the rest of the crumbled paper fell out of the way and onto the top of the desk. Lynx had the same shuddering reaction to it lying there that he did when it fell apart in his touch, but he still couldn't understand why.
Pyra leaned over the desk and Lynx leaned with him, staring at the basic black ink drawing on another thick piece of paper on the very bottom of the drawer. This paper seemed far newer and in sturdier condition than the paper that had topped it, as if the lining of the drawer had protected this paper from the influences of the environment and kept them from negatively impacting the drawing.
Lynx had been staring at the drawing for a few seconds before he even realized what he was looking at on the bottom of the drawer. The black lines, strange symbols, and boldly shaded areas were a map. Once he figured it out, the boundaries and symbols were completely clear to him, but when he first looked at it, it was as if his mind couldn't process what he was seeing. The Denynso had never even thought of a map of Uoria. It was not something that they felt that they needed, and not something that they could create anyway because they had never been into the other areas of the planet.
Getting one from another species was nothing that they could ever have fathomed happening before now. The Denynso ancestors built the compound on what their ancestors believed to be the most beautiful and useful part of the land on Uoria, and everyone after just stayed put. They didn't interact with the other species that Lynx was now convinced inhabited the rest of the planet. The only species they had encountered were those that wanted to take over their beautiful compound, or try to show their dominance and attempt to subdue the mighty Denynso, and came to wage war with them.
They assumed that the other species that were on the planet must operate in the same way that the Denynso did in terms of cooperating with others that were not like them. Though there were plenty of the Denynso who were extremely excited about the prospect of cooperating with humans from Earth and even starting to build a relationship that would allow both species to learn from and protect the other, there were others who believed that they should remain as they always did, kind to others, welcoming to few, and completely separate. They didn't want the warriors to find any other species or to start creating plans to cooperate with them as they were with the humans from the university. They felt that their kind had always been separate from others and that was the way it should remain.
"There is another kingdom marked on here. It isn't too far away," Pyra said.
"What do these marks mean?" Lynx said, pointing to a series of lines beside the name of the kingdom.
Pyra looked at them for a few seconds and then his eyes drifted down to the bottom of the page. He pointed to a square that had been drawn several inches away from the rest of the map and that contained not only that symbol but a few others as well. Beside them were words.
"I think that this is a key to the symbols used on the map," he said, "According to this, that symbol means that the two kingdoms maintained good relations."
"Do you think that it is possible that the other kingdom is still around?" Lynx asked.
The two men looked at each other, their gazes exchanging the idea that both of them were forming at the same moment. Pyra dug his fingers beneath the corner of the hidden map and loosened it from the position where it had sat for the decades since the Covra had locked the settlement and everyone inside it. Lynx watched while his leader worked on the map carefully, loosening it gradually by moving his fingers around the edge until he was finally able to release it from its position. Fortunately it did not crumble the way that the lining had and he was able to take it out of the drawer completely intact before gingerly rolling it up so that he could carry it more easily.
Without exchanging any more words, the two warriors rushed out of the office in the ornate building that they assumed by its design and the items that they found inside had some government purpose for the people in the settlement and toward the home that they had made their headquarters. Though they had only gotten the opportunity to explore that one office in that particular building, they had been going through all of the other buildings in the settlement for days trying to find anything that they could to help them. Now that they had the map, Lynx felt like they might have made progress that would help them achieve this incredible feat that they had set out for themselves but that had begun to feel as though it were slipping further and further away.
Pyra and Lynx burst through the door to the house where Rain lived and stalked into the living room. Only a few of the warriors were there, poring over papers and other items that they had found in some of the other buildings. Lynx watched them, suddenly feeling nervous about what they may discover in those papers. If he had been able to find out that Rain and the others in the settlement were human just by taking a glance at the back of a photograph that she had sitting on the table beside her bed, how long would it take for one of them to find something in those papers that would tell them? And when they did find out, how would they react?
"Where are the others?" Pyra demanded.
All of the men sitting around the room looked up at him, their expressions telling them that they hadn't even noticed the two of them come into the house.
"They are still out exploring."
"Go find them. All of them. Bring them back here immediately."
Ciyrs, Vax, and another warrior complied, rushing out of the house and leaving their papers spread across the table. Lynx approached the papers, letting his eyes scan over the words on them as quickly as he could so that he could determine what they were. The ones those three men had been looking through seemed to be forms that the people of the settlement filled out on a daily basis. They were like journal entries, but lacking
the depth and emotion of freeform versions. Instead, they contained a series of questions and blocks for the answers, giving the people just enough space to offer a few words about each of the inquiries.
What is the day? What is the weather? How are you feeling? What are your tasks for the day? How has the mission changed since yesterday? What must you accomplish by tomorrow? Do you have any new information?
Reading through the answers gave Lynx a slightly uneasy feeling, as if he was at once looking into the past and listening to the voices of the people that were locked in the settlement telling him in that moment about what they experienced in the days and months leading up to the catastrophic event that kept them frozen in between heartbeats, unchanged and unmoving, for longer than Lynx had even been alive. Before he could look any further at any of the other papers, the rest of the warriors streamed back into their house.
As soon as they settled around the room, Pyra unrolled the map and displayed it to the men.
"Lynx and I discovered this while we were exploring an office in the large building at the center of the main street. It is a map of Uoria at the time when the settlement was active and has markings for other kingdoms that they maintained good relationships with during that time. For some reason it was hidden at the bottom of a drawer under a lining."
"Probably to protect it from the Covra," Vax said, "The Light Ones probably wouldn't want for their greatest enemy to find a map that would tell them the people that they were cooperating with and that they would rely on in serious times. It would only put both of them at greater risk."
Pyra nodded.
"It shows that there is another kingdom relatively close by that they were friendly with. If that kingdom is still there, there is a chance that they might have information about the Light Ones that could help us understand them better and might give us some insight into how to unlock them."
"Do you think that we should go there?" Ty asked.
"Not all of us. If there are still Covra around and they are just hesitating coming here because of the wall, us leaving could take that away. Loralia said that the only way that that wall of spikes would stay there is if we fully and completely believed that it was there. If we leave the settlement, that belief might disappear," Lynx said, "and even if it doesn’t, if we aren't here anymore, the wall isn't dangerous. As long as the Covra can see it, they know not to run into it."
"Lynx is right," Pyra said, "if we all leave, the Covra will know that the kingdom is vulnerable. If there are any adults left, they'll come back and they might not be so willing to let the Light Ones live any longer. Some of us have to stay behind and keep protecting the settlement and the people here. The rest will go on to the other kingdom and see if there is anything to find out."
"Who should go and who should stay?" Ciyrs asked.
"Does anybody have any opinions one way or the other?" Pyra asked.
"I'm going to stay here," Lynx said, "I don't want to be away from Rain. It's not that I don't trust all of you, it's just that she is my responsibility and I want to be here for her."
"That's fine," Pyra said, "Anyone else?"
"I should go," Ciyrs said, "As we found out with this settlement, we never know what we're going to find wandering around Uoria, and I should be with the ones who are going into the even more unknown areas so that I can help if there is another problem."
Pyra nodded and one by one the other men made their decisions about which of the tasks they would take on, whether they would stay in the settlement with the Light Ones and protect them while continuing to try to solve the issue of their locking, or step back out of the settlement and venture into the further reaches of what was turning out to be a much stranger and more hostile planet than they had imagined. When they had divided up, Pyra looked at Lynx.
"While we're gone, Lynx is going to act as leader for this group," he said sternly, looking at each of the men who had decided to stay in the settlement, "He has the most stake in all of this and he's going to be the one that will know best what to do to protect the Light Ones. I don't know how long we're going to be gone, but no matter how long it is, Lynx acts in my stead. You treat him with the same respect as you would treat me, and you do what he tells you to do."
The other men agreed and Lynx felt his chest tighten with emotion. It was an incredible honor, something that he never would have imagined he would have been given. Pyra had been born to be the leader of the Denynso warriors and had taken on the role when he was still quite young. Offering even the smallest amount of that responsibility and honor to another of the warriors was something that never happened, and the fact that he had chosen Lynx out of all of the men was extraordinary. Lynx was younger and less experienced than many of the other warriors, which meant that Pyra was showing even more trust in him and was relying on him even more than he would be had he chosen any other man to take on that role.
"When are we leaving?"
"As soon as possible. The longer we wait, the more chance there is that we won't be able to find any useful information in time to help the Light Ones. Everyone who is going with me, gather everything that you might need and after lunch we will head on our way."
The men dispersed, heading to the other houses where they had taken up residence so that they could gather their supplies and prepare for what could be another arduous journey ahead of them. Though they had a map that showed them the way as they had with the settlement, it didn't point out any potential dangers that may exist between the settlement of the Light Ones and the kingdom where they were headed.
"While we're gone, I want you to do everything that you can think of to figure out how to unlock them. You are the one who is in charge now, so you tell the other men what you want them to do and they'll do it for you," Pyra said, clapping one of his massive hands down on Lynx's shoulder.
"Thank you, Pyra," Lynx said, "It really means a lot to me that you are trusting me so much."
Pyra gave a nod and started upstairs to the room he had chosen. He, along with Ty, Vax, and Ciyrs, had been staying in this house with Lynx and Rain. Lynx suddenly realized that the four of them would all be gone, leaving him completely alone with Rain. It was an odd feeling that bordered somewhere between being excited that he was going to get the opportunity to spend some time with her without the other men being in the house, and worry that every moment that he was out of that house she was going to be totally vulnerable. He considered asking one of the other men who were staying behind to come move into the house with him, but he changed his mind. Keeping Rain safe was his lifelong responsibility and he was not going to be able to rely on others to help him all the time, no matter how worried he was about her. He wondered if Pyra felt the same way about Eden, or the others felt the same way about their mates. Maybe that was what made them seem so strong when they finally found their mates. It wasn't really that they weren’t that strong on their own, but that the constant worry about their mates forced them to be stronger so that the fear would not overcome them.
Chapter Five
Zsilvia heard George call her name and for a moment she wondered if she had imagined it. The sudden change of the expression on Eden's face, however, told her that she hadn't. The smaller woman gave her a meaningful look as if imploring her to remember what she had said about George and the potential for his feelings for her, and then turned around with an enormous forced smile.
"There you are!" Eden exclaimed, "Zsilvia has been waiting for you. She thought that you had slipped out and she came out here to look for you, but she couldn't find you so I've been standing here with her chatting. You know how women are."
George looked at her quizzically and then at Zsilvia, who was startled and somewhat put off by Eden's sudden false bubbliness.
"I was inside Ciyrs' shop talking to Zuri. I thought you saw me."
Zsilvia shrugged.
"I guess I was seeing things. Did you two talk about anything interesting?"
She was trying t
o sound casual, not allowing the emotion that had already begun coursing through her to come through in her voice. Eden was looking between the two of them, her hands cupped around her belly and the smile on her face static as if she couldn't release the muscles enough to make the expression fade now that she had managed to force it into place. Suddenly she seemed to notice the other two looking at her out of the corners of their eyes and the smile finally broke.
"Oh!" she said, glancing back toward the glow of the shop where Zuri had just stepped out of the door, "Now that you've found him, I'm just going to go. I have to talk to Zuri about something."
She rushed away with as much speed as she could muster and Zsilvia returned her gaze to George. His eyes smoldered into hers and she felt her body getting hot. Her heartbeat increased and she felt like she was having trouble keeping her breath even.
"Are you ready to go home?" she asked.
"Sure."
They walked along together and Eden's words repeated themselves through Zsilvia's mind with each step. She wanted to believe them and to open herself enough to give George a chance, but she was struggling even to stand near him without feeling the almost painful internal tug of both wanting desperately to be with him and being frightened enough to want to run. It was as though there were two of her existing within her body and they were trapped in an ongoing fight. One of them was ready to move forward and step into an existence controlled by the moment that she was living and not what lurked behind her eyelids every time she closed her eyes. The other was still very much living in that dark, unsafe world and could not break free of her own imminent existence.
"Blood flow," George said.
"What?" Zsilvia asked, turning toward him to give him a strange look.
"Blood flow. That's what Zuri and I were talking about. You asked if we were talking about anything interesting and that's what we were talking about."
Alien Romance Box Set: Uoria Mates II Complete Series (Books 1 - 10): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 25