“We have thirty days, then,” he said finally. The only part that moved when he spoke was his mouth; everything else remained frozen. “Thirty days until they come down and wreak havoc upon us, our planet, and the colonists.”
“That gives us two choices,” Sevani said, holding up two fingers toward the firelight. “One is to send out scouts immediately to find a temporary base for us to house everyone until we find something more permanent. The other is to batten down the hatches and set up defenses against them. Their stealth technology is of no advantage to them now that they have made their impending arrival known.”
“There is a third choice,” I added loudly. All eyes turned to me. I leaned forward, my elbows pressing against the table and my hands joining into one great fist. “We fight.”
Silah shot me an approving look and Dane tilted his head with consideration, but the Pentabans frowned so deeply their mouths carved lines into their skin.
“Setting up a strong set of defenses is the best battle tactic,” Khrel said in his gravelly voice. “Only when the majority of them are either decimated or trapped by our defenses would it be wise to battle hand-to-hand.”
“Not necessarily,” Silah disagreed. “It sounds as if they are used to having the upper hand due to the element of surprise. They do not have that here. If their success is reliant on that advantage and it is absent when facing us, our offense may be too powerful for them.”
Sevani shook his head. “They have spent centuries doing nothing but traversing the universe and going to war with anyone they meet. If there is one skill they have honed, it is offensive battle.”
Dane turned to the Pentaban Elder and said, “We need to take this to Forum, of course, but I believe our first priority needs to be the colonists and our civilians. They must be taken to the safest places of Albaterra until the Council decides our course of action.”
“Agreed,” Sevani said sagely.
“Where is there room enough for so many?” I asked, dubious.
Sevani and Dane studied each other for a brief moment, and then Dane said, “It will be at the discretion of the Council, but the entire kingdom of Pentaba is outfitted with protective defenses and can comfortably house Montemba. As for the other kingdoms, I cannot say.”
“There are too many colonists in Montemba to house in our colonies,” Khrel remarked. “Many will have to stay in A’li-uud society.”
“The only matter of importance is safety,” Dane told him. “Living conditions will, unfortunately, have to be shelved as a priority.”
I made a sound of agreement in my throat, and, despite the severity of the situation at hand, an image of Celine being assigned to live with me in a Pentaban stilt-house flashed in my mind. At least I would be able to protect her myself, then.
“We must summon the Elders to Forum immediately,” Dane was saying to Sevani. “Action must be taken at once to ensure the security of those entrusting us with their care.” He looked to Silah and me. “It is your duty to get the humans packed up and ready to move at a moment’s notice. Whether we will relocate to Pentaba or not, I do not know, but they will have to leave their dorms either way.”
“Yes, Fierce One,” Silah replied as I nodded.
We all slid our chairs back and rose to our feet. Silah rounded the table to me, and we exited the room at a quick walk. When we were out of earshot, he murmured, “Shall we tell them why we need them to pack up their things?”
Again, I thought of Celine and her many, many questions. If I told him to keep quiet, I was obligated to tell her nothing. If I told him to inform them, however, it could incite panic, and panic engendered stupidity. I frowned at the ground as I walked, mulling over the options.
“Chief?” he asked when I failed to reply.
The sun burst into my eyes as we stepped outside, and I caught a glimpse of humans milling about the Ward square. They were cheerful, peaceful, unconcerned. Some walked in groups and others alone, but the atmosphere was serene and pleasant.
At that moment, I made my decision.
20
Celine
Waiting for Lokos to return was torture. I wasn’t even thinking about our little tryst anymore, and that alone would have made it practically unbearable to wait. Toby’s news about contact from the people, or things that tried to kill us was so disturbing that I found my hands shaking at random intervals. I had to fight back the simultaneous urge to cry and vomit at the same time. It was almost like knowing there was a stalker outside of your window but you couldn’t do anything about it, and, honestly, I was scared.
Lokos finally did return, and his face was so serious that my hands started shaking again. Instead of going upstairs to my bedroom, I stepped outside with him.
“Donna’s here,” I said in a low voice. “Let’s just talk out here.”
He gave me a curious look but agreed with a slight inclination of his head, and we began walking. Rather than taking the stone path that would lead us into the Ward, he turned onto the bank of snow that served as a lawn between dormitories. I followed, my shoes crunching on the ice-capped whiteness, and tried to figure out how to ask him about what Toby had overheard in a way that would successfully grant me an answer.
When we were a safe distance from the buildings and lingering in a small alcove of oddly knotted pine trees, I took a deep breath. Before I could speak, though, Lokos swept down on me and closed his mouth over mine.
He tasted delicious, and his scent matched the sap-like aroma emanating from the trees next to us. To feel his lips soothed me, and to breathe him in eased the tumbling in my belly to a gentle ripple. Something about his presence was reassuring, and it was even more reassuring now that I fully understood how desperately he wanted to protect me. I was safe with him.
I broke the kiss first, but he was the one who spoke. “You must pack,” he said bluntly.
The words returned my fears in full force, and I asked, “Does this have anything to do with the Conquest bombing?”
His eyes narrowed, but the rest of his face remained impassive. “Yes. How did you know?”
“Toby, one of my dormmates, said he overheard the General talking about contact being made,” I admitted. “They’re watching us, aren’t they?”
Lokos’ jaw tightened, but he didn’t sidestep my question as I expected. He muttered with irritation, “That man is utterly incompetent,” before sighing and lowering his head. “I do not know if they are watching us. If they are, we have no proof, but my instincts tell me they are,” he said. “I am not supposed to tell the colonists this, but, as you know what you know already, I will share it with you. Yes, the Novai have made contact, and they have ordered us to evacuate Albaterra within thirty days.”
“The Novai?”
“A race of particularly aggressive warriors,” he said. “They have been searching for a planet to call home for a very long time. So far, they have been unsuccessful, but every planet they visit suffers great damage at their hands.”
“And they want to live here?” I whispered. I wanted to ask about the great damage he mentioned, but I already had visions of massive, smoking craters and raging fires in my head, and I didn’t want to throw myself into a complete panic by learning the intricacies of the Novai’s bloodlust.
Lokos made a brushing motion with his hand. “Perhaps. Either they have identified Albaterra as their desired home, or they intend to descend upon us and find out first-hand. It matters little. What is important is getting you and the other colonists, as well as the A’li-uud civilians, somewhere safe.”
“What do you mean?” I demanded. “Are you going to send us to another planet or something?”
“The Council will be making those kinds of decisions. I do not have the authority to decide what is best for everyone,” he replied.
“So, why do I need to pack?”
His eyes shadowed the way they always did when I asked an abundance of questions, but this time he seemed willing to indulge me. “You will be relocating eith
er way. It may be to another kingdom, it may be somewhere within Montemba. It is possible, though unlikely, it will be another planet. Regardless, you will not be remaining in the Fifth Ward, nor will anyone else.”
“What about you?” I asked fearfully. “Will you be going somewhere safe too?”
“I will likely have a temporary home within the designated safe space, yes. But I am War Chief, Celine. It is my duty to lead my warriors in battle when faced with dangerous opposition. I will not be in hiding.”
A new chord of worry zinged through me, this time through my chest. The awful images I had playing in my head of the craters and fires were suddenly enhanced by the addition of Lokos’ mangled corpse, and I instantly lost the ability to breathe. My lungs filled with air, but I felt no oxygen absorbing into my blood, and I choked.
“Are we going to die?” I asked hoarsely.
Most people would have shaken their heads at once. Some would have even emphatically told me no, that they wouldn’t let that happen. Lokos did neither of those things. Instead, he looked me squarely in the eyes and, without flinching, said, “We might.”
His answer should have terrified me. It should have taken my already-building panic into a volcanic eruption of manic hysteria. I expected myself to burst into tears or maybe even faint as I was faced with the very real possibility of my death. The only thing that happened, though, was a great, warm sense of peace trickled from the center of my scalp down my temple to my shoulders, rolling in droplets to my belly where it pooled and filled me with serenity. If he’d told me everything would be fine, it would have been a lie. There was solace in the ugly, awful truth.
“Okay. I’ll pack,” I said, my voice stronger than it had been since I’d greeted him upon his return. “When will the other colonists know?”
“Silah is dispatching the other guides as we speak to instruct their charges,” he answered. “But you are the only one who is aware of the reason behind the orders.”
“Can I tell Donna?”
He shook his head gravely, hair as white as the snow beneath him billowing about and catching on some of the nearest needled boughs. “No one. I should not have even told you.”
“Why did you?” I asked, suddenly breathless.
Lokos looked at me in silence for a minute. His eyes, milky and soulful, burrowed into mine until I felt him entering my core again. His aura plunged into my depths, pulling me to him on another plane. When he spoke, it sounded as if he were very far away. “To keep you safe.”
21
Lokos
Pentaba was one of the few kingdoms I had visited only once in my life, but it was perhaps one of my favorites. A vast ocean separated its marshy landmass from Montemba, an ocean that was covered in floating icebergs on our side before gradually melting into humid, weed-riddled waters on theirs. The climate was always thick and moist and left my skin feeling damp even indoors, but the air was pungent with delicious aromas of herbal foliage and swamp flowers. Just as in Montemba, the sky above was a rich hue of turquoise with swatches of lavender clouds and beads of glinting, white stars, but such a multitude of trees populated Pentaba from border to border that much of the heavens were visible only through leafy canopies. The ground was almost completely shaded and blanketed in layers of moss and mud where the waters only reached in the rainy season. It was, for lack of a better term, beautiful in its rustic simplicity.
Usually, the Pentaban citizens lived in some degree of hermitude. Save for the few towns and capital city, most homes were surrounded by nothing but bogs and the nearest neighbor was neither visible nor audible. The houses were unique unto themselves. Those in the deepest parts of the swamp towered nearly twenty feet in the air, resting atop reinforced stilts that allowed murky water and wildlife to pass beneath without hindrance. Others were built on raised platforms that accommodated only a few feet below where flooding was not a threat. Only the homes within the boundaries of the established towns sat firmly on the ground, and the capital was the only place one would find homes designed not for survival but for comfort.
Three days after the second Novain message came through, Pentaba was a different kingdom. Humans and A’li-uud packed the towns to breaking, and the capital was nearly impossible to maneuver. Even the isolated bog houses were no longer free of population as their residents had been ordered to take in as many refugees as they were able. There was a constant hum of sentient life no matter the time of day or location, and the teal-skinned A’li-uud native to the region were less than pleased.
The house I had been assigned was actually the home of Sevani’s grandfather, who had passed away just eight months prior. It was deep in the bowels of the swamp, surrounded by trees so tall they even towered over the sky-reaching stilts that held the one-room cabin aloft. A rickety porch wrapped around the entire structure, seemingly supported by nothing beneath and creaking forebodingly each time I stepped on it, and a steep staircase led to a dock to which a small and unsteady boat was tied. I was amazed Sevani’s grandfather had been able to live there alone until his passing as he had been well over two-hundred and certainly feeble.
“There is room in my quarters, if you would prefer to stay in the city,” Silah told me as he looked around the minimalistic cottage. He was repeatedly fanning himself. His skin, which was usually a whitish cornflower color, was marred with patches of blue as dark as the evening from the heat and humidity, and he had been in a constant state of disgruntlement since our arrival in Pentaba. “I cannot imagine anyone being comfortable here.”
“I prefer this,” I said. “I enjoy the isolation.”
“Will you enjoy the isolation when you are alone out here and dying of heatstroke?” he asked grumpily, waving a hand rapidly around his face again to stimulate air flow.
I nodded my head at his fanning. “You know, you are only making yourself warmer by doing that,” I pointed out.
He stopped and harrumphed, glaring unappreciatively at me. “We are to report to the Elder palace,” he grunted. “The speech to the civilians is scheduled in an hour, and Sevani feels it necessary to explain Pentaba’s defenses to us before that.” He scoffed. “I am certain he is only using it as an opportunity to brag.”
“Perhaps, but we need to know,” I said absently. I was pulling weapons from my pack and placing them in their holders on my belt. It was only something I did when I was preparing to go into battle, but, now that we were on lockdown, I felt a strong desire to be prepared for anything at any time. Two knives, two daggers, a sword, and six small sharp discs surrounded my waist before I was satisfied and turned around to face Silah. “I am ready.”
“The Pentabans are going to think you are here to murder their Elder,” he grumbled. When I raised a brow at him, he dropped his gaze to his boots and added, “Sorry, Chief.”
We descended the narrow stairs to the dock. A second boat was there, tied beside the first, from Silah, and we clambered into it with tilting balance. There were no oars or steering devices visible as there would have been on a boat elsewhere in the world because Pentabans had long used an upgraded style, as water travel was their most heavily-utilized medium to get around. I reached toward the stern and wrapped my hand around a thin black cord, which was slimy with algae. One swift tug made the boat jerk and grunt, and a second sent us flying through the swamp waters so fast that insects splatted across my face and the wind burned my eyes. If I had understood Sevani correctly, the boats were thrown forward by the force of the mechanisms below attached to the cord, so, rather than rowing relentlessly until the boater reached his destination, a few tugs on the cord could accomplish the same goal much more quickly.
It was apparently a technology that worked because we reached the city in a very short time. As we disembarked from the boat and trotted up the steps of the public dock to the boardwalk, I was overwhelmed with the number of people around. Humans mingled with hundreds of pale-faced A’li-uud, who mingled with more hundreds of teal-faced ones. The chatter was so loud I could barely he
ar myself think, and, when Silah yelled something to me, I had to actually read his lips to understand him.
“Just wait,” he called over the roar. “The capital is worse.”
I shook my head in disbelief, trying not to elbow passersby as I twisted and contorted my body through the crowd. I had yet to recognize a single face apart from Silah’s, and the sheer volume of beings made me doubt I ever would.
The boardwalk was not nearly as long as it took to reach the end of it, but the throng was so thick that it took nearly twenty whole minutes to reach the crosswalk, which led into the heart of the city. As I turned the corner, I was stopped dead in my tracks by the sight. Thousands—literally thousands—of A’li-uud buzzed in one enormous swarm, so tightly packed and numerous that the crowd swelled all the way out to where I stood. The Elder palace rose tall and proud in the very center, but, as far back as we were from it, what looked like little insects were bustling all the way up its steps. It took several blinks to convince myself they were not insects at all but A’li-uud.
The human faces in the mob were better blended here, fewer and farther between. For every human I saw, there were two Pentabans and ten Montembans. It was as if my entire kingdom was standing in this one location and a few others had come around to join.
“How are we supposed to reach the Elder palace?” I bellowed over the voices.
Silah motioned to his left. “This way!” he shouted back.
I started to follow him, but so many had begun to gather around us from behind that I knocked into someone, nearly toppling them over. As I whipped around to apologize, I caught a glimpse of umber hair in the very center of the crowd. It was moving strangely, bobbing and weaving, and I squinted for a better view. Then, my heart dropped into my stomach as I realized it was Celine, and she was being dragged through the throng by a gnarl-faced Pentaban male.
Lokos: A Scifi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 4 Page 9