by Ashley West
Now, he stood at the head of his gathering, looking out at all of them.
There were more warriors than many people knew, but they didn’t have the numbers that some other races could boast. They weren’t as large as the armies of some other planets, numbering in the hundreds and ready to lead a whole fleet. To be an ice warrior, you first had to show a mastery over your element, and that wasn’t something that everyone born on Fora could do.
There were just over fifty of them gathered there that evening, standing in the palace with its icy spires and lavish decorations.
Cullen had always wondered about how a palace built out of solid, never melting ice could be so welcoming. It was bright and open, unlike their city, and he couldn’t help but wonder if his people hadn’t always been so closed off.
But that wasn’t why he was there, so he focused. The questions he had about his people and how they had become who they were now could definitely wait.
Prince Kalias looked out at all of them for a moment, taking them in. None of them had any illusions that the Prince knew their names or recognized their faces. They were a combined force to be wielded in his name, and they all accepted that as the way it was.
They could tell that something was bothering their Prince, though. He was usually impassive, as cool and smooth as ice itself, but now he was practically fidgeting in place, nervous about something, on edge.
“Thank you for coming,” he said, and as one, the warriors bowed to him, their left hands pressed over their chests. Kalias acknowledged the bow with an incline of his head, and then sighed. “I won’t lie to you. There is no point. I have called you here because the news is not good. Things are not as they should be.”
No one had been laboring under any delusions about the news being good, so they just waited and listened.
“There is a man,” Kalias said. “Who has been making his way through the galaxy, conquering planets, destroying homes and lives, rendering people helpless and desperate in his wake. His name is K’varot. I’ve kept tabs on him since he appeared on my radar, but no one seems to know where he is from or what his ultimate goal is. It’s anyone’s guess if he’s just bent on destruction or actually seeking to rule the entire galaxy with his army, but no one who comes into contact with him leaves unscathed.”
Cullen frowned as he listened. Things like this happened all the time on other planets. People fought over territory and dominion. They warred back and forth with anyone who thought to challenge them. It was one of the reasons why they kept themselves separate and out of involvement with things like this. If other planets were being terrorized by this man, then surely that was their problem and not something for the Ithilir to involve themselves in. Unless…
“Has he set his sights on us?” Cullen asked the question before he’d really taken the time to think about it. Everyone turned to look at him, the Prince included.
“Cullen, isn’t it?” Kalias asked, and Cullen’s eyes widened comically. He’d never dreamed the Prince would know his name.
“Ah, yes,” he said, trying to sound confident. “That’s me. I didn’t mean to interrupt, I only—”
Kalias cut him off with one raised hand. “Do not apologize. You’re right.”
With those two words, Kalias seemed to have sucked all the air out of the room. Cullen took no pleasure in being told that he was right by his Prince because in this case, he didn’t want to be right. No one had ever set their sights on the Ithilir in a way that mattered or warranted being called to the palace like this.
All the warriors began murmuring to each other, speculating over what this meant. Cullen kept his eyes on the Prince, though, and when he raised his hands for quiet, Cullen knew there was more to be said.
“K’varot is not a new threat,” the Prince continued. “As I said, he’s been combing the galaxy for quite a while, picking off those that he deemed too weak to stand up to him. He has had his eye on our people for some time.”
“And you didn’t tell us?” Overon demanded, honorifics be damned, apparently.
“I did not think he was a true threat. To us,” Kalias said, and that pacified Overon and the others who seemed upset that they were just now being told what was happening. No one had ever managed to get through their walls, so why would they need to worry?
“What changed?” someone asked.
"This," Kalias said, holding up what they all recognized as a message sphere. It was a common form of communication, programmable to seek out the person the message was for after the message was recorded. Surely there had to be more to it than that.
"This," Kalias continued. "Was found in the early hours of this morning. On our side of the walls."
"And it's from him?" someone wanted to know.
Kalias inclined his head. "Yes."
And that was when chaos broke loose in the room. Message spheres were supposed to find the recipient with ease, but the walls kept them out the same way they kept threats out. On the very rare occasions that message spheres came in, they were stopped at the checkpoints before being taken inside.
"It just appeared?" Lormerol, one of the newest of their number, asked.
"Yes," Kalias said again. "There was no telling how it got here, either. No holes in the walls, and none of the guards let it in."
"Then they're lying," Overon said. "Obviously. Nothing can get through the walls without getting past them. One of them is working for this K'varot."
"You're suggesting we have a traitor in our midst?" the Prince asked, one delicate eyebrow arched.
"Maybe more than one," Overon answered. "There's no other way. The walls are impenetrable."
"Are they?"
The Prince's question brought them all up short. He was asking them? All their lives they'd been told that nothing could get into or out of the Walled City without passing through the checkpoints. The guards were always alert, always at their posts, and for decades there had never been a problem. Until now.
"What does the message say?" Cullen asked, and his voice cut through the chaos.
The Prince smiled at him. "An excellent question." Without further ado, he threw the message sphere up into the air. It split itself down the middle and a holo image formed under it. A twisted, hulking, ugly creature stood there, and Kalias narrowed his eyes. "That, is K'varot."
"Hello, Prince-y," the holo image said, the wide mouth of the thing stretching wider as he spoke. "You'll know who I am, I'm sure. On the rare chance you don't, my name is K'varot. I know what you must be thinking. Why am I contacting you? The Ithilir don't bother anyone and people who bother them tend to die in messy, cold ways. It's just not practical. But you see, I'm not a practical kinda guy. I like to dream big, I like to make things happen. The Ithilir have been unchecked for too long. You've gotten too full of yourselves, walling off your city like the rest of us are dirty and not good enough. And who knows what kind of treasures you've got in there. I want to see. And I want to be the one who finally took down the untouchable, icy Ithilir. So you can consider this a declaration of war or whatever you want to call it. I'm coming for you."
And that was where the message ended. In the silence left after it was done, no one said anything. What was there to say, honestly? The message had been very straightforward.
"There's no way he can actually do that, right?" someone asked. "He can't get through the walls."
"For all we know, he's already been through the walls," Kalias said. "We can't assume that we're safe from him here. We cannot assume that we won't have to fight him."
It was a large prospect. For all they spent so much time defending their walls and city, no one had ever seriously made them think that they were in danger. All the threats were easy enough to put down, but if Kalias was right about how K'varot's forces had taken out so many other planets and people, then they might be in trouble.
"What do we do?" Cullen asked.
"We're going to attempt to hamper him," Kalias said. "I reached out to someone who has fought wi
th him before, and they offered me some information. Apparently, K'varot has his sights set on Earth."
"Earth?" Overon asked. "Why? There's nothing on Earth but coal and humans."
"There's a fair bit more than that now," Kalias said. "And I think that K'varot plans to turn it into a base. There are resources enough to sustain him and his people and probably aid in his crusade against us, not to mention the fact that humans make good slave labor for a madman."
So there it was, then. A declaration of war, a madman they needed to stop. It was...well, it was something completely new for all of them, and Cullen knew he likely wasn’t the only one who would be reeling with this news.
The Ithilir had never been to war before. None of them had. But they clearly could not ignore this.
“What are your orders?” asked one of the senior warriors near the back. They all stood at attention to listen.
“You will be going to Earth. I’m as aware as the rest of you that our people do not war on this scale. I cannot say whether or not we would win, and I am reluctant to put our people and way of life in such danger. So you will be going to Earth to try to cut him off before he comes to us. The fact that he’s going there to build up is power suggests that he doesn’t think he has enough strength now to beat us. Perhaps that’s true, perhaps it’s not. Either way, we’re not going to sit around and wait for him.”
“But, Your Highness, that’s a terrible idea.”
Everyone swiveled their heads around to see one of the messengers standing near the back with wide eyes. She looked like she’d seen some phantom of the dead, or like she was about to pass out. “Excuse me?” Kalias asked.
“You can’t...if you send the warriors to Earth, who will protect us?”
...Actually...that was a good question.
Kalias exhaled slowly. “We still have our regular warriors, and they can defend the walls. This is more important, Imercia. The humans will need our help, as well. For once, the Ithilir will think outside of themselves. For once, we will stand with others, and we will not fall.”
Chapter Three: Trouble, Trouble
It was sort of amazing how things had changed in the days following the announcement from K’varot. Where before people had been afraid but willing to continue on with their lives to a certain extent, now people were barely leaving their homes. People who Sadie had been on adventures in food gathering with called to say they weren’t coming back because they didn’t want to get caught. Anyone in a town where K’varot’s men were seen tried to escape and get somewhere safe. Not many of them made it.
For all they had been occupied before, now it felt real. Now there was a declaration of intent from a creature none of them understood, and they knew that things were bad and that there was very little they could do about it.
The governments of the world made their statements, saying they weren’t surrendering and that if there was a way to defeat this menace, it would be found and then executed. No one was very reassured.
Even Sadie, who had talked such a big game about not rolling over and dying for this K’varot, was starting to feel the fear creeping up on her. She still went out with those who were brave enough to continue raiding for food. She still helped people where she could, refusing to become selfish and sheltered just because she was afraid.
She still believed in people helping people and that the only way they were all going to survive this was if they put aside their individual problems and fears and worked together. And she meant to be an example of that. She meant to make sure that no one was going to be left alone to try to deal with what was happening.
She did not mean to get caught.
But of course, like with all things, sometimes your plans didn't work out the way you wanted them to. Sometimes things threw a wrench in the works.
Sadie had a bag full of food that she had gotten from a grocery store just uptown. She'd coordinated via private messages on social media to have someone pick her up and drive her closer to her subdivision so she could distribute the food to anyone still left and take the remnants for her and Jas. When she heard a rumble, the sound of a vehicle coming down the otherwise deserted street, she just naturally assumed it was the ride she was waiting for. And she was wrong.
As soon as she stepped into the street, she saw that it was some kind of all-terrain vehicle, not a car, and that it was carrying four of the creatures that she'd seen the night this had all started.
Swearing under her breath, she went to find a place to hide, abandoning the bag of food where it had fallen in the middle of the street.
There were three or four seemingly abandoned cars on the street, and she hid behind the largest one, one hand clapped over her mouth to quiet the sound of her ragged breathing. Her heart was racing a mile a minute, and it was so loud in her own ears that she was sure they'd be able to hear it. Not much that could be done about that, though, so Sadie just tried to calm down and keep quiet.
The vehicle cruised down the street, past the bag of food and past the spot where Sadie was hiding, and she was about to let out a sigh of relief before it screeched to a halt.
All four of the creatures got off, and Sadie was able to get a good look at them for the first time. They weren't as hideous as K'varot, but that wasn't saying much, to be honest. Their skin was a deep grey color, and it looked hard to the touch. They were tall, over seven feet she was sure, and they had long braids going down their backs. They were all armed with those forked spear things she'd seen before, and as she watched, they poked them into corners, electricity zapping through the air.
One of them said something in a harsh language, and another responded, and then they both laughed, a sharp, rattling sound.
Mocking humans, no doubt.
As she watched, one lifted his arm to his face and spoke into something that looked like a watch with an iPhone mounted onto it. It was probably some manner of alien technology, and Sadie swallowed hard, wondering what they were looking for. She just had to wait until they moved on, and then she could get out of here and back to safety.
Come on, she thought. Just get back on your thing and get out of here.
In the distance, there was the roar of an engine, and Sadie hoped against hope that it wasn't the person who had been going to give her a ride. She didn't want to be responsible for the death of another person.
Something cold and wet touched her knee, and Sadie jumped, eyes wide. All she could think was that she was about to be discovered, or that she already had been, and she swallowed hard again, body trembling. When she looked down, she nearly laughed with relief.
Just a dog. Just a dog that had clearly once been someone's pampered pet, and was now on its own. It was fluffy and white, or it used to be white because now its fur was covered with dirt and grime with burrs stuck in it. The collar around its next read 'Fitz' which said more about the owners than it did about the dog, and Sadie reached up to pet his head with one hand.
It was a big dog, a Samoyed she was pretty sure, and it nuzzled affectionately into her touch, clearly starved for it, which was kind of adorable. And then it let out a sharp bark, which was definitely not.
"Shh," she hissed, holding up a hand like the dog would be able to understand what she wanted from him just from that.
He clearly didn't because he barked again.
The roar of the engine was getting closer, and when Sadie dared to peek around the car, she could see that the four creatures in the middle of the road were looking in that direction.
Oh god.
She was just contemplating how she was going to get away when three things happened in rapid succession. The first was that whatever had the roaring engine came thundering down the street to stop right near where she was hiding. The second was that the dog bit her. Hard. Making her yelp and swat it away. The third was that the dog darted around the car and right up to the creatures in the road, barking and wagging his tail.
Idiot.
While they were distracted looking at the d
og, Sadie lifted her head to try and see through the car's windows and get a glimpse of what was happening.
What she saw froze her blood in her body for a second.
It was K'varot. Unless there was another really ugly alien thing with an eyepatch running around, which she highly doubted. He was there, standing just shorter than his minions, but much wider and uglier.
What was he doing here? So close to residential areas? Was he already starting his campaign to find that slave labor he'd been talking about?
She had to get out of there. That was the only thing she knew. She had to get out and get back to Jasmine and let her know that they needed to leave. Surely there were safe places somewhere else. Sadie liked her house, but she didn't like it enough to die for it. There would be other houses.
K'varot said something to one of his minions and then swatted at the dog, who yelped and then ran off. Little troublemaker. As Sadie watched, though, one of the minions lifted a clawed finger and pointed. Directly at her hiding place.
K'varot's disgusting mouth curled into a smile, and he said something she couldn't understand to the minion.
One minute she was watching him get close to her, and the next he was lifting the car and tossing it aside like it weighed no more than a loaf of bread. Sadie's eyes widened, and she fell over from her crouch and scrambled back, trying to get away before the thing could get ahold of her.
Unfortunately, she didn't move fast enough, and the minion grabbed her arm, claws digging into her skin as he dragged her up from the sidewalk and pulled her over to K'varot.
"Bow," the minion said in English that sounded like he had crushed glass in his throat. "To Lord K'varot."
"No thank you," Sadie replied, jerking at her arm in the creature's grip. "But it would be really great if you could let me go."