by Ashley West
The grip only tightened, and she felt one of the claws pierce her skin. "Bow!" the minion barked.
K'varot held up a hand. "Be calm," he said. "Humans are vermin, and vermin never bow to the hand that kills them." His voice was oily and guttural, and it made Sadie's stomach drop just to hear it. He was close enough that she could smell his breath, hot and rancid, and she felt like she was going to throw up from a mixture of fear and revulsion.
"What do you want with me?" she asked, trying to sound brave.
"With you? Nothing. You do not look strong enough to be of any use to me."
She bristled at that and then wanted to roll her eyes at herself. The last thing she needed to be doing was trying to prove that she was strong enough to be K'varot's slave or whatever. "Sure," she said. "I'm weak and pitiful. You should just let me go."
He laughed, and it felt like spider webs were clinging to her skin. "Do you know, little vermin, what happened to the weak where I was born?"
"They got cushy office jobs?" Sadie guessed flippantly.
He smirked at her, and it was a horrible look on him. "No. They were tossed into a pit with no bottom. Well, that's wrong, the pit had a bottom. It was just filled with toxic slime. It ate at my skin and flesh when I was thrown in there. I almost wasn't able to climb out. But climb out I did, and I emerged stronger for it. Better for it. And now I know what to do with weakness."
Sadie was terrified, but she had never been one to let her fear hold her back. “So you’re going to kill me?” she asked.
K’varot laughed. “Oh no, little vermin. Death is too swift, too merciful for the weak. If I’d died in that pit then I never would have suffered.” He reached out with one large hand and found the side of her face with a finger. When Sadie tried to jerk back, repulsed by the feeling of his skin against hers, he laughed again and took her face in hand. “I want to see you suffer, pretty little vermin. I want to see what it takes for a human to break.”
If she were being honest, and she usually tried to be, death was starting to sound better and better. K'varot wasn't kidding about not killing her, though. He gave his minions strict instructions to keep her alive, and then had them bind her wrists behind her back with something stronger than rope. She tried to wiggle her way free, but she was tossed over the shoulder of one of the seemingly mindless minions and then carted to the vehicle for transport.
All she could think as she watched the city grow smaller and smaller was that Jasmine had been right. She'd been so worried that one day Sadie just wasn't going to make it back home and she'd be waiting for nothing, and it seemed like today was that day. Unless Sadie could manage to get free somehow and make it back, her friend was going to have to manage on her own for a while.
She was taken to the outskirts of the city proper and then even further than that, to the run down part of town that no one lived in. Right smack dab in the middle of what used to be a defunct apartment complex was a ship.
All in all, she had to admit that it was a ship fit for someone who was styling himself as an overlord. It was bigger than anything she'd ever seen before, about the height of one of the tall office buildings in town, twenty stories or so, and wide like a barge. It looked like it could house K'varot's entire army and then some, and she supposed that they'd all come to Earth in that monstrosity with the smaller ships and terrain vehicles inside of it.
She was pulled from the vehicle and made to walk, one of the minions pointing his weapon at her back. Sadie didn't doubt that he'd hurt her if she tried to make a break for it, so she walked, letting them lead her towards the ship.
As they approached, the door slid open to reveal two neat lines of more minions, in all different shapes and colors, clearly of other alien races but pledged to the same cause. They walked out and formed their lines on either side of the path they were walking up, saluting as K'varot passed.
The gross creature looked pleased as punch to be on the receiving end of so much respect and kowtowing, though he barely acknowledged the salutes as they walked past.
The inside of the ship was lavish, and Sadie was actually impressed. Everything gleamed with newness and chrome, and various dials and screens were built into the surfaces. A winding staircase led up to who knew what, and what appeared to be an open faced elevator was right next to it.
Down a long, carpeted hallway, there was an ornate door, and she was pretty sure she knew what that room was used for. When she was steered in that direction, then she knew she was right.
"Well, this is original," she said. "You're like a mad pirate captain or something."
"You're boring me, little vermin," K'varot said. "And once you get too boring, I'll have to dispose of you."
"Sounds better than being stuck here," Sadie muttered under her breath.
The room they walked into was even more lavish than the rest of the ship. Everything was done in dark, rich colors. A beautiful desk sat in the center of the room, and on the walls were screens that seemed to be monitoring the rest of the ship as well as the outside. An elegant, plush chair was behind the desk, and behind that was a cage.
In comparison with everything else in the room, it was downright plain. Just silver grey bars in a square shape, probably tall enough for her to stand in and stretch her arms out to either side with her hands touching the bars. At the bottom was a thin mat and a single pillow--the illusion of comfort.
It was into this cage that she was unceremoniously prodded.
Sadie didn't fight it, waiting to see how it would be locked. If she could get out of the cage, then...
Oh.
A panel opened up in the front of the cage where a lock would be, and K'varot pressed his hand to it, sealing the door shut. She probably wasn't getting out of this without help. And who knew if that would come.
For the first time since she'd been spotted by these creatures, it began to dawn on her how hopeless this was. No one knew where she was, and even if they did, what would they do? They couldn't fight K'varot and his thugs. Either she was going to die here, or K’varot would make her into some sort of pet, and that wasn’t much better than dying, to be honest.
The minions withdrew, leaving her and K’varot in the room alone together. He was still wearing his mouth stretching grin, watching her as she tried not to show how nervous and worried she really was. He wanted to see her distressed and desperate. He wanted to watch her break.
“I like the bravery act,” he said, voice softer in this room when it was just the two of them than it had been when the others had been there. “It means you’re going to be difficult. People always think you need your victims to be meek and timid, but where’s the fun in that? Taking the weak who think they’re strong and wringing every last ounce of fight out of them is so much more enjoyable.”
“You’re sick, do you know that?” Sadie spat. “What did we ever to do you?”
“Human? You did nothing. Your planet is just useful to me, and it would be a shame to let free labor go to waste, don’t you think? I have another race to conquer when I’m done here, so it’s really nothing personal.” He stood there for another long moment, looking her up and down. When it became clear that she probably wasn’t going to do anything exciting, he sighed. “Eventually, little vermin, I will get my enjoyment from you. Enjoy this rebellion of yours while you can.”
And with that, she was left alone in the room.
Sadie’s will gave out there, and she crumpled to the bottom of the cage with a sigh, tucking her knees up to her chest and pressing her face to them. This was terrible. She had no doubts that K’varot could actually break her if he worked at it, and she didn’t want to hang around to figure out how long it would take.
She needed to get out of here.
Being locked in a cage that was locked in a windowless room made it hard to determine how much time had passed. She watched the screens on the walls sometimes, trying to figure out from what she could see what was happening. The screen that was monitoring the outside was turned
off, so she couldn’t see what was going on out there.
She slept fitfully for what had to be a few hours, disappointed because she’d discovered her cell phone tucked into her bra where she’d put it before she’d been taken, but the battery was dead.
No food or water were offered to her, and she felt her stomach growling and her mouth going dry as she huddled in the cage to wait.
But time passed, and K’varot didn’t come back.
Had he left the ship? Was he waiting for her to let down her guard or to start begging for something to eat and drink, the first of many indignancies he’d force onto her? It was impossible to know, and she didn’t want to call out in case he was waiting for her to make the first move so he could start torturing her.
So time passed and she grew tired and hazy from lack of good sleep and lack of food and water. When she heard shouting at one point, she thought she was imagining it. Sadie lifted her head to listen and, yes, that was definitely the sound of fighting. But who was fighting? Had the minions turned on K’varot? Had humans broken in? Was the army here?
“What’s going on out there?” she asked, blinking slowly. There was, of course, no one in the room. She was trapped alone in the most lavish prison she could imagine, curled up at the bottom of the cage, her belly gnawing on itself in hunger. “Can someone help me?”
No sooner had the words left her lips than the door was sliding open. That did make her sit up, and she blinked owlishly as light flooded into the otherwise dim room.
A deep voice called something in a language she didn’t understand, but it was less harsh than the language she’d heard K’varot and his thugs speak.
“I don’t understand,” she said back, voice raspy from disuse. “Can you help me?” It wasn’t wise to trust a stranger she couldn’t even see, but what other choice did she have?
Her possible savior stepped into the light then, and Sadie got a good look at them. It was a male, tall and imposing. Somehow she knew he wasn’t human, but he looked much more humanlike than the others she’d seen, though his skin was almost white it was so pale. His eyes were unnaturally blue, and they darted around the room for a moment before landing on her in the cage.
“Hi,” Sadie said, giving him a little wave.
“Hello,” the alien replied slowly. “Are you a prisoner?”
She nodded. “K’varot calls me his little vermin.”
A look of disgust passed over the male’s face. “Do you know where K’varot is?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head quickly and then regretting it. She felt hollow inside, and her head ached. “I’ve been locked in here. I haven’t seen anyone.”
He said something else that was clearly a swear in another language and then huffed. “We need to find him.”
“When you do, smack him around extra for me,” Sadie said.
Something like a smile passed over the man’s face and he took a step closer to her and her cage. “Let me get you out of there,” he said.
“I don’t think you can. It locks with K’varot’s handprint or something.”
“Biometrics,” the man murmured, nodding. “No matter.”
“No matter?” Sadie repeated. “No matter? If it was no matter, I’d have—” She was cut off by him wrapping his hands around the bars. He looked strong, but she was pretty sure he couldn’t just yank the bars out of place. Only then it rapidly became clear that wasn’t his plan at all.
As she watched, frost spread from his fingers to the metal of the cage, coating it in a thick layer of glittering ice. The man let it build and build and then he let go. “Stand back, please,” he said to her, waiting until she complied to kick in the iced over metal. And just like that, the bars shattered, leaving a hole just large enough for her to climb out of.
“See?” he said, a slight smile on his face. “No matter.”
Sadie just gaped for a long moment, at a loss for words. Her head was swimming and spinning from the lack of food and water, and she had just been rescued by someone who could make ice with his hands.
She swayed on the spot and when the man tried to reach for her, she jerked back.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said softly, holding both hands palm down. “We’re here to help. We’re here to stop K’varot. You have my word.”
“Words don’t mean anything,” Sadie managed to get out and then it was all just too much. Everything that had happened in the last...who knew how long it had been was too heavy, and she couldn’t hold it any longer. She’d been snatched, threatened, starved, and now saved, and enough was enough. “Catch me,” she murmured and then fainted right into the man’s arms.
Chapter Four: Savior in White
Though Cullen had never witnessed it before, he was pretty sure that leaving your home planet to save it and another was supposed to be a joyous occasion. The conquering heroes, flying out to bring glory to the name of their kind and save those less able to protect themselves.
He hadn't been expecting a parade or anything, but some sort of send off would have been nice. Something meant to inspire them and remind them of the place they called home before they went off to reaches unknown.
This was definitely not that. The people had gathered, but it was a somber scene. More like a funeral procession than a proper send off. Everyone looked worried and some added disdain to it, clearly not approving of the warriors leaving the city's walls and the planet's safety.
"Ungrateful," Overon muttered as he flicked switches on the ship, firing it up so they could leave. "If we let this K'varot kill them all, then they'd be mad about that, too."
"Don't joke like that," Cullen said as he took his seat. "We wouldn't let them die. We're not going to let anyone die."
"I know that," he replied. "I'm only saying. Look at them." He gestured out the large bay window of the ship to the people who had gathered right at the edge of the wall.
Cullen's parents were there, as were the families of many of the other warriors. From what he could gather, most of them thought this was foolishness. They believed in the walls and that they should just wait for K'varot to come. Of course, that was because Kalias had declared that no one other than the warriors needed to know that K'varot had already managed to slip something through their defenses. Cullen could understand that. It would just cause a panic, and the last thing they needed was for the people to start panicking.
It was, perhaps, a testament to how much they believed in their ice warriors that they thought they could take out a man determined to be some sort of overlord without having to dismantle the things he had built, first.
"We need to forget about Fora for now," Caelum said, and they all glanced at him. "We're fighting for Earth first."
And that was a fair point. They were headed to Earth to make sure that the humans didn't fall to K'varot and his men, and to hamper K'varot's progress in building things to defeat them.
It was going to be a fairly long journey, even with the warp paths that were scattered throughout the galaxy, and none of them were looking forward to being cooped up in a ship for weeks on end.
A borrowed ship, at that. The Ithilir had ships, but since they never went anywhere, they didn't have any that would make the trek to Earth in one piece. So they had to borrow one from someone the Prince had been communicating with.
It was a pretty nice ship, too. Not that Cullen or any of the rest of them had experience with these things. But it was comfortable enough to fit all fifty of them, spacious, and heavily armed in case they were challenged before they got to Earth.
Kalias wouldn't tell them who it had come from, which made them wonder even harder, but it wasn't important in the long run. What mattered was that the ship would get them where they needed to go and then they could help these people.
"Initiating launch," Overon, who had declared himself de facto captain, said. "Everyone ready?"
“As we’ll ever be,” replied the woman sitting behind him.
Overon glanced at Cullen, and Cul
len inclined his head. “Take us there,” he said, getting one last glance at the only place he’d ever known before they were off.
The journey to Earth was utterly unremarkable. No one hailed them, no one challenged them. They flew from warp path to warp path, checking their heading constantly to make sure they were progressing in the right direction. It took several days before the large blue and green sphere that was Earth came into view.
Part of their preparations for this journey, aside from endless training, had been learning more about Earth. It was one of those self-important planets that mattered in its solar system, but was ultimately irrelevant to anyone who wasn’t close to it.
There were tales of pollution and crime and horror stories about everything from rape to cannibalism. Cullen was sure that there was no way all of that was true, but he wondered all the same what Earth was going to be like. After all, he and basically everyone else had never been anywhere before, so this was going to be an experience no matter what Earth was like.
"Earth's a big place," Tiama said as they approached the planet. "How are we even going to find this K'varot when we get there?"
"If Earth looks anything like the other planets he's been on, it shouldn't be that hard," Overon said. "We can just follow the chaos and screams."
"Do you think it'll be that bad?" someone else wanted to know.
Overon shrugged. "Seems smarter to prepare for the worst. We're out of our depth here."
"We're not," Caelum said. "Protecting people is what we're good at. This won't be any different."
It was definitely different.
Cullen looked around wide eyed at the place they'd landed in, unable to take it all in at once. Where the Walled City wasn't primitive, exactly, it was isolated, meaning that there were never new things to see and experience and once you'd done and seen everything there was to do and see, there wasn't anything else to surprise you.
He didn't think he'd ever see everything Earth had to offer. Everything was huge and bright, even with the shadow of K'varot over it. The few people they saw were all different looking, and they looked at them and then got terrified, running away in fear.