by Ashley West
"I think we're in the right place," Cullen murmured. "They must think we're working for K'varot."
"What an insult," Overon said.
"Be insulted later. We need to find him."
They split up into five groups of ten with the instructions to find what they could and gather information. They weren't ready for a fight just yet, but if they were challenged, then they would defend themselves and anyone else who needed defending.
Cullen led one group, and they walked deep into the city they had found themselves in, trying to get any information possible. Of course, no one wanted to talk to them, and he couldn’t blame them for that. But luck was on their side, and within a few hours of poking around, they managed to find some Gilots who were all armed and heading in the same direction.
“I bet they’re working for K’varot,” Cullen murmured. “We’re going to follow them.”
They all had experience being silent and stealthy, and they managed to tail the creatures all the way back to a giant ship that was in the middle of a run-down looking area.
The ship was huge, easily big enough to fit hundreds of men comfortably, and it looked like a diplomatic ship from the Shini region. As they watched, the Gilots filed inside and the door banged closed behind them.
“Plan of attack?” someone whispered, and Cullen’s mind raced. There were only ten of them, and if K’varot was on that ship, then they would have a real fight on their hands. There was no way of knowing how long it would take the other groups to arrive to back them up, and it seemed inopportune to just walk away now.
“We’re going in,” Cullen heard himself saying.
“We are?”
“We have to. There could be prisoners on board.”
“What if K’varot is on board?”
“Then we send him a message and get out. He’ll find out we’re here sooner or later,” Cullen reasoned. “Unless someone has a better idea.” No one spoke up with anything, so Cullen nodded. “Then we go in.”
The best case scenario for this would be K’varot being gone and just a few of his minions being around. They could take them out and then rescue anyone who was being held captive there. The worst case scenario would see them staring down K’varot and all of his men, and Cullen didn’t even want to think about that.
Silently, they crept forward, moving towards the ship. He didn’t have a plan for how they were going to get in unnoticed, and so he decided right then and there that stealth was no longer an option. Now they would see the might of the warriors of Fora.
Cullen walked right up to the door and knocked on it, holding his free hand up behind him, signaling to the others to get ready.
The door opened slowly, and a confused looking Gilot was standing there. “Who are you?” it demanded, and Cullen smiled. He unclenched the hand that he’d used to knock with and released the spray of ice that had been gathering there, blasting it right into the Gilot’s face. His face froze over, and he fell backwards with a heavy thud.
“Come on,” Cullen said, stepping over the Gilot’s body and into the ship.
He gave a low whistle at the opulence around them. It was definitely a stolen ship, and Cullen wondered what had happened to the people who the ship had belonged to. Probably they were dead. This would be for them, too, then.
“Fan out,” he murmured. “Groups of two. Leave someone for questioning, rescue any prisoners. Go.”
And just like that, training took over from there. They’d never done an operation like this before, but the warriors of Fora were nothing if not skilled at being efficient. They’d take out their enemies with quick, almost ruthless precision and rescue anyone who needed it. Cullen moved with his partner to do just that, hoping against hope that he wouldn’t find K’varot and have to try to fight him or flee.
He did not find K’varot. In fact, the leader of this whole mess didn’t seem anywhere to be found on the ship. And there were a very manageable number of his minions on board who were swiftly taken care of. Luck had been on their side.
What Cullen had found in K’varot’s quarters was a human woman. She’d been near delirious and she looked like she’d been starved in that cage that Cullen had pulled her out of.
Now she was asleep in his arms, and he was unsure of what to do with her.
Presumably she had family somewhere or friends who were looking for her, but she was unconscious and Cullen couldn’t ask her. He was unwilling to leave her here, so that left one option.
“You brought back a human?” Overon demanded when they had all reconvened at their ship. “What we you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I wasn’t going to leave her on K’varot’s ship in a cage, Overon,” Cullen snapped. “And there was nowhere else to leave her.”
“You could have taken her to some other humans to look after. We’re warriors, not nursemaids.”
“I didn’t know where she belonged. She’s been through a lot. K’varot had her locked in a cage. He was starving her. She needs help, not to be dropped off like a sack of tube root.”
Overon shook his head. “I can’t believe you stole K’varot’s pet and brought her back here.”
“She’s not a pet, she’s a person. And you’re going to leave her alone, Overon. She needs her rest and then she needs food.”
“Maybe she can help us,” Tiama said, shrugging a shoulder. “She’s probably seen K’varot and knows what his plans are.”
“We know what his plans are,” Overon pointed out. “We don’t need a human for that.”
“She’s staying,” Cullen said firmly. “We’ll talk about what to do with her when she wakes up, but for right now, she’s staying here. We’re here to help these people, Overon, don’t forget that. For once, it’s not entirely about us.”
No one seemed to know what to say to that, and Cullen didn’t feel like explaining it. Instead, he went to fetch a plate of food and then went to the small room that he had placed the human woman in.
She’d been drooling on his shoulder when they got back to the ship, and he’d placed her on the bed in the room and covered her up, closing the door and locking it for good measure in case anyone got any ideas. He didn’t think they’d hurt her, but it was probably better to play it safe than to regret not doing it later.
The door opened to his touch, and when he walked into the room it was to be met with a large, frightened pair of light brown eyes. Somehow, she seemed even smaller here in this room than she had when she was in his arms. She was pressed into a corner on the bed, trying to keep her distance from him.
Cullen stared at her for a long moment, the plate of food in his hands, before he realized he was going to have to say something to her. “You’re safe.”
She eyed him skeptically. “You...saved me?”
He nodded. “Yes. From K’varot. We’re here to help you. To help all humans, and drive K’varot away.”
“And you’re not human.”
It wasn’t a question, but Cullen shook his head anyway. “No. I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I’m your enemy. We’re only here to help.”
“What are you?”
“We are the Ithilir. Will you tell me your name?”
She watched him for what felt like a long moment, and he could see her weighing the decision. Finally, she nodded. “I’m Sadie.”
“Sadie,” he repeated. It wasn’t a name he’d ever heard before, but of course, humans would have different names. Every second he spent on this planet was like a learning experience.
“What’s your name?” Sadie was asking him in response.
“Oh. My name is Cullen.”
She tipped her head to the side. “That’s a pretty normal name for an alien.”
Cullen shrugged a shoulder. “It’s what my parents named me. I can’t speak to how normal or not it is.”
"Why did you bring me here?"
It was easy to tell that this was the question she'd been building to the whole time. There was fear in her eyes, and she hadn't yet m
oved to take the plate of food from him, even though he could hear her stomach growling from across the room. But she didn't know if she was safe or not, and it made sense that she'd want to know that before she accepted anything from him.
He tried to make his smile as welcoming and nonthreatening as possible as he took another step towards her. "You're not a prisoner here," Cullen told her gently. "I promise. You can leave whenever you'd like. I brought you here because I couldn't leave you on K'varot's ship, and I didn't know where else to take you. I brought you here because it's safe."
"I didn't think anywhere there were aliens would be safe for a human," she said, eying the food now.
"Not all of us have a problem with humans. There are so many different clans and races out there. Expecting us all to be the same is unfair."
She fixed him with a flat look. "I'd apologize, but up until now the only aliens I've ever met have been the ones who want to kill me or break me or keep me locked up. So you're gonna have to give me some time."
Cullen inclined his head and then held the plate out to her again. "That's fair, I suppose. You've been through an ordeal. But please, rest assured that we are nothing like K'varot and his makeshift army. We're here to protect you. You can trust us."
Sadie didn't really look convinced, but she took the plate from him all the same and set to eating like it had been weeks since her last meal.
Cullen watched for a moment and then decided to try something. "Could you tell me what's been happening here? On Earth?"
She looked up, still wary about the eyes, like a spooked and cornered animal. Slowly, she nodded and began to speak between taking bites of the food. Sadie wove a story for him in a soft voice, of how K’varot and his men had arrived and how they had turned living on Earth into a nightmare. She didn’t seem happy in the telling, but she didn’t seem sad, either. Just sort of numb as she talked about it.
Especially when she talked about how K’varot had captured her and intended to ‘break’ her. That left a bad taste in Cullen’s mouth, and if that was what he was doing to humans, then Cullen was even more determined to defeat him.
“I need to get back to my friend,” Sadie said when she had told him all she knew. “She’s going to be so worried about me.”
“We can go in the morning,” Cullen agreed.
“No,” Sadie said, shaking her head vehemently. “We need to go now. You don’t understand. I have to get back to her. I don’t even know how long I was gone. She doesn’t know what happened. Probably she thinks I’m dead.”
“Okay, okay,” Cullen said, holding his hands up to stem the frantic tide of her words. “I’ll take you.”
She relaxed, then, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Cullen lent her a spare tunic from the ones they’d brought with them, since her clothes were dirty and torn. He smiled at the way it fell down past her knees and then led her from the room she’d been given to the front of the ship.
“Where are you going now?” Overon demanded. “Off to find more strays?”
Sadie flinched at his tone, and Cullen drew her in closer to him. “Off to return this one, actually,” he said. “And now I have more information about what K’varot plans to do here. We’ll talk about it when I get back.”
Overon had the decency to at least look a little bit ashamed, and he nodded, waving them off. Cullen just shook his head and led Sadie out.
He didn’t have one of the terrain vehicles that Sadie had described K’varot’s minions as having, but it was lucky that he didn’t mind walking and where she said her home was located wasn’t terribly far from where they’d landed the ship. Together, they walked, Sadie not speaking, and Cullen not urging her to.
She was different, that much was for certain. Never had he met anyone like her before, and he didn’t think he’d meet anyone like her again with how varied humans seemed to be. Cullen couldn’t help but watch her, fascinated by the little nuances he saw. The way her fingers nervously flicked through her hair, the way she kept close to him as they walked, even though this was her planet and she knew it far better than he did.
There were a million things he wanted to ask her, but she’d been through something terrible and he reined his questions in.
“Where—” he started to ask when they reached a cluster of houses and...what probably used to be houses and were now craters. Something terrible had happened here, and it seemed to be new because Sadie had drawn up short, her eyes wide with horror. “What is it?” he asked her.
She lifted a shaking hand and pointed at the house in the center of the street. It was still standing, but the front door looked like it had been kicked in and was hanging ajar and crooked in its frame.
“Oh no,” she said. “Oh no, oh no.”
Without another word, Sadie took off running full tilt, rushing to the house. Cullen took off after her. “It might not be safe!” he hissed, not wanting to bring attention to them if there was someone lurking about.
Sadie didn’t seem to care about the danger. She rushed to the house and burst in. “Jasmine? Jas!” she called, voice frantic. “Jas, wake up! I’m back!”
No one responded.
“Sadie…” Cullen tried, but she cut him off with a glare and went shoving into the other rooms of the house.
Cullen left her to it. Clearly there wasn’t anything he could say that was going to make her calm down until she’d either found her friend or...realized there was nothing here to find. He didn’t think anyone was home here, and his heart ached for Sadie.
“Jasmine!” Sadie shouted from somewhere in the house, and he sighed and looked around.
There were vague signs of a struggle, broken dishes on the floor, a kicked over chair. But other than that, everything seemed to be in its place. Or what he would assume was its place. A very fine layer of dust coated everything, and it seemed like no one had been here for at least several days.
“I can’t find her.”
Sadie’s voice in the doorway made him jerk his head up to stare at her. In the dim light of the house, she looked haggard and worn. She was thin and there were dark circles under her eyes, and she looked to be on the verge of tears.
“I don’t think she’s here,” Cullen said as gently as possible. “Look.” He pointed to the broken things, the chair, and the dust.
A ragged sob broke free from Sadie, and she took a step toward the couch and then ended up crumpled on the floor. Cullen started towards her in alarm.
Her shoulders shook as she cried, and he felt frozen. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Did she want to be comforted? How did humans comfort each other, even?
“She—she,” Sadie tried, hiccupping between words as she tried to force them out through her tears.
“Was she...all you had?” Cullen asked gently.
Sadie shook her head. “I was all she had,” she managed. “K’varot—K’varot killed her parents. They died when they came here, and—and, and I promised I’d be there for her. And this happened, and I wasn’t there.”
“Because you’d been taken prisoner. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was!” she wailed. “I should have been more careful. For her. She was always worried about me going out, and I didn’t care. I just didn’t want to be locked in my own house, and I went anyway, and she must have been so scared. I should have been here.” She devolved into wordless tears, and Cullen couldn’t just stand there anymore.
He stepped closer and then crouched down so he was nearly on her level. “It’s going to be okay,” he murmured. “If they’d wanted to kill her, they would have done it here. If they just took her, then we can find her.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” Cullen said, and he put his arms around her and pulled her close, letting her rest against him as she cried. “If they have her, we’ll get her back. I promise.”
It was, perhaps, a foolish promise to make in the grand scheme of things. They had much bigger things to worry about than one human,
considering they had come to Earth to try and save all humans. But he hated seeing her like that, hopeless and lost, and even more, he knew he couldn’t just leave her.
“Come back to the ship with me,” he said.
“What?” Sadie asked, lifting her head. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying, and he knew he was doing the right thing.
“Come back with me. You’ll be safe there. K’varot’s going to find out you’re gone from his ship, and he might come looking for you. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Okay,” she replied, and Cullen smiled and pulled her close again.
Chapter Five: A Break in the Habit
There was something entirely disorienting about waking up and being unsure where she was. She knew she wasn’t at home, and she knew this wasn’t the cage in K’varot’s quarters. For one thing, she had much more leg room, and for another, the persistent gnawing hunger and feeling of terror were gone, replaced only by a numb sort of grief.
Her head ached, and her mouth was dry and foul tasting, and Sadie had to lie there in bed for long moments to remember all that had happened.
She’d been rescued.
By another kind of alien, no less, but rescued all the same. She was on their ship now, safe. Jasmine was...wherever she was. Not at their home, not anywhere Sadie could find her easily. She was probably alone and scared and thought that she didn’t have anyone left in the world, and that made Sadie want to throw up again.
Cullen had been there the last time she’d thrown up, right outside the rose bushes at her neighbor’s house when they’d been leaving. It had all just been too much for her at that point, not to mention that she’d eaten too much food after too many days of eating nothing.
He’d brought her back to the ship, glaring at his companions in a way that dared them to say something about it. No one did, and she was led back to her room. Cullen had stood there, somewhat awkwardly, and promised her that it would be alright. They were on Earth to help, and if there was anything he could do to help her, she only needed to ask.