Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3)

by Ruth Anne Scott

Rotnim took one more step closer, and all her hope vanished. He might let her talk to this big hairy creature, but he could hold her still and stop her running away with a flick of his tentacles. He would never let his prize escape.

  Carmen faced the shaggy alien and found him glaring at Rotnim with glittering brown eyes. A mask of hatred and disgust marred his otherwise princely countenance. “I guess this is the market on the planet Corax.”

  His head snapped around. “This isn’t Corax. What made you think that?”

  Carmen waved her hand at the crowd. “He said he was taking us to the market on Corax to sell us to the highest bidder. If that’s not what’s happening here, what is?”

  The alien shook his head. “This isn’t Corax. This is nowhere near Corax. This is Angondra, and we don’t have anything to do with those filthy markets with their putrid slave traders.”

  Carmen’s eyes widened. “You don’t? Then what are we doing here?”

  He snorted through his nose, and a rumble of laughter rolled out of his barrel chest. “We hate the markets and everything about them, and we especially hate the Romarie.” He snarled in Rotnim’s direction, who cringed and fawned before him in abject servitude. His tentacles quivered, but the big alien paid no attention. Maybe the Romarie had no telekinetic power over these creatures.

  “If you hate the Romarie,” Carmen asked, “why did you let them bring us here?”

  He gestured toward the crowd. “You see the different subspecies of our people here? You see those ones with the feathers? They are called Avitras. Those ones with the webbed feet are Aqinas.”

  Carmen nodded. The Avitras were just as tall as the other Angondrans, but slight and wiry. They didn't sport heavy chiseled muscles, and in addition to the feathers around their heads, they had rows of feathers along their forearms.

  “Angondra has five factions,” he told her, “but we’re really just different variations on the same race. We all hate the Romarie, and we agreed to keep them off our planet. Only the Ursidreans agreed to let them land here and show their wares.”

  “Who are the Ursidreans?” Carmen asked.

  He pointed to a burly alien crossing the room. He even dwarfed Carmen's new friend with his hulking frame. “They hate the Romarie, too, but those shifty criminals took advantage of the Ursidreans’ trusting nature. They made up a big story about the benefits of bringing in new females after ours died out in the plague....”

  Carmen peered into his face. “So you lost your females in the plague, too? Maybe you should get new ones.”

  He shook his head again, and his shaggy mane rippled with the movement. “We have enough of our own kind to regenerate our population without contaminating ourselves with the Romarie. We’ve worked for many generations to keep their influence off our planet. That’s why we came to this gathering, to make sure the Romarie don’t try to manipulate anyone or invade our world. They’re pure evil, you know. You can’t trust them for an instant.”

  “I know,” Carmen murmured.

  Another creature stepped out of the crowd. Soft black hair surrounded his delicate head and lay back against his face in a striking ruff. Pointed ears peeked out from his dark hair. Carmen noticed others of his kind in the hall with grey or light red hair. When he opened his mouth to speak to Rotnim, Carmen spotted gleaming fangs in the corners of his mouth.

  Carmen inclined her head toward her new friend. “What faction does that creature belong to?”

  “That is Caleb,” he replied. “He belongs to the Lycaon faction.”

  “And what about you?” she asked. “What faction do you belong to?”

  He puffed up his chest, and his shaggy mane rose on end to make him look more grand and imposing than ever. His heavy shoulders towered over her. “I belong to the Felsite faction. We used to rule this planet, but now the different factions keep to their own territory.”

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  His eyes softened, and he smiled at her. “My name is Renier. And you?”

  She smiled back at him, and when she automatically extended her hand to him in greeting, she found her limbs free to move. The Lycaon must have distracted Rotnim for a moment. “My name is Carmen. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  At that moment, the whole scene exploded before her eyes. To anyone else, it may have passed in a fraction of a second, but to Carmen, the events of the next few minutes unfolded in slow motion.

  Caleb, the slender newcomer, bared his teeth in disgust when Rotnim answered him, and Rotnim withdrew in horror at the sight. His tentacles lashed the air, and the telekinetic power blew the delicate hair back from the Lycaon’s face. But the invisible force had no effect on him other than to make him even more enraged.

  Caleb’s dark lips slithered back from his fangs and he growled at Rotnim. Rotnim’s thin veneer of polite condescension evaporated before Carmen’s eyes, and he raised his hand to his belt for his weapon. A lightning bolt of alarm shot through Carmen’s guts, and every nerve and muscle stood on end. This could only end it a fight.

  But Caleb moved faster than thought. He brought up his hand and struck Rotnim’s arm away from his weapon. The impact sent Rotnim staggering backwards, which caught the attention of the other three Romarie. They spun around and grabbed for their weapons, too.

  Renier noticed the confrontation first from his place at Carmen’s side, but the other Angondrans didn’t take much longer to realize what was happening. In an instant, several dozen Angondrans from all the faction rushed the Romarie brandishing every weapon imaginable. The feathered Avitras wielded long staffs with curved blades attached to both ends. They swung their staffs around their heads, and the blades whistled through the air.

  The Ursidreans pulled out some kind handheld gun similar Rotnim’s. One of them fired at Tinim, but nothing came out the end of it. A hot wind shimmered through the hall and rustled Carmen’s hair, but Tinim staggered backwards and slammed against the vehicle behind him.

  Caleb followed up his attack on Rotnim by slashing him with his fangs. He leapt on the Romarie leader and knocked him flat on the ground. Rotnim’s weapon skidded across the floor. Caleb landed on his chest, and his fangs snapped at his face. Rotnim raised his hands in front of himself for protection, but it was too late. Caleb feinted, and when Rotnim tried again to repel him, he ducked and grabbed Rotnim’s neck and then he broke it with his bare hands.

  A deafening roar shivered Carmen to the depths of her being, and she turned her head just in time to see Renier rushing past her into the fray. Carmen snapped out of her stunned surprise and ran forward, too. This was the best chance she and her friends would ever get to get away from their captors.

  She shouldered through the crowd and grabbed Rotnim’s weapon from the floor. She hefted it in her hand, and she took half a second to figure out where the firing mechanism was. When she folded her hand around the trigger grip, it whined and hummed against her palm. She aimed it at Tinim where he struggled to get back on his feet, and before she could make up her mind to activate the firing mechanism, the thing went off in her hand.

  She stared at it in astonishment. Then she understood what had happened. Her own thoughts activated it. These Romarie had telekinetic powers, so their weapons must operate on their conscious thoughts. Her own intention to fire the weapon caused it to fire.

  An Avitras rushed up to Tinim and slashed him across the chest with his double-bladed staff. Orbnim exchanged fire with an Ursidrean, and Renier tackled Albinim. He pulled a short, thick blade from his belt and drove it toward the Romarie’s chest. Albinim got his weapon out in time, but it went off before he could aim it. The shot ricocheted off the ceiling and flattened a group of Angondrans rushing to join the fight.

  Carmen dashed forward and grabbed Penelope Ann by the hand. “Come on! This is our chance! Let’s get out of here.”

  Aria turned around and shouted, “What?”

  Penelope Ann didn’t wait to be told twice. She followed Carmen away from the vehicle and into t
he crowd. Marissa cast an uncertain glance over her shoulder. All the remaining Romarie were engaged in mortal combat with the Angrondrans. She set off after Carmen and Penelope Ann.

  Aria hesitated one second longer, and in that second, the Romarie must have detected their intention to escape. Orbnim fired one more time at his Ursidrean foe. The shot flew wide and sailed into the crowd. Caleb rushed out of nowhere, directly into the path of the shot, and it hit him squarely in the chest. He crumpled onto the ground, and Carmen saw Marissa standing still on the other side of him. She stared down at his prostrate form. He’d stepped in front of the shot to save her from being hit.

  Orbnim didn’t see any of that. He fired his weapon into the crowd and darted forward. His tentacles danced out from his face, and Aria froze in mid-stride. Carmen stopped, too.

  Penelope Ann touched her arm. “Come on, Carmen. Let’s get out of here. I don’t know where we’re going to go, but we can get lost in this crowd. At least we won’t be on our way to the markets on the planet Corax.”

  Carmen shook her head. “We can’t leave Aria.”

  Marissa pulled her away. “Leave her. We can’t sacrifice ourselves for one person. If we don’t go now, we’ll all be recaptured. You’ve got a weapon. We can fight our way out. Come on. Let’s go.”

  Carmen shook her hand away. “We can’t leave her here. We can’t let even one of us go to the markets. You two get into the crowd and find the exit. If you need help, find one of these factions that hates the Romarie. I’m going back to get Aria, and I’ll meet up with you later.”

  Penelope Ann rushed into the crowd. Marissa glanced back and forth between Carmen and the path to freedom. Carmen couldn’t wait any longer. She ran back toward the vehicle, but at that moment, Orbnim threw his arm around Aria’s neck and pulled her against his chest. He turned her to face the crowd and pointed his weapon at her head.

  “Get back!” he thundered. “Get back or I’ll kill this female where she stands.”

  Carmen stopped and lowered her weapon. The Avitras fighting Tinim moved back, but didn’t relax his fighting stance. Orbnim backed toward the open door of the vehicle with Aria clutched tight against his chest. The other Albinim followed his example and retreated toward their own escape.

  Carmen looked around. On all sides, the Angondrans held back to let the Romarie depart, but Carmen let out a cry of dismay. They couldn’t let these aliens take Aria off the planet. If Tinim dragged her into that vehicle, they would never see her again. They would sell her at the markets, and whatever else she did in her life, Carmen couldn’t let that happen. She would sacrifice her own chance at freedom to free her friend.

  She started forward, but Orbnim spotted her and jammed his weapon even harder against Aria’s temple. Aria let out a sob of pain and despair. Carmen raised her own weapon to aim at Orbnim, but his tentacles lashed out and caught her before she could get it into position.

  From the other side of the fight, Renier looked up and read the situation in an instant. He held Albinim down with one hand and sent his blade whistling through the air toward Orbnim’s head. The Romarie spun around, and his tentacles slithered out toward it. It hung suspended in midair. Then it clattered to the ground.

  In the moment when Orbnim’s attention moved away from Carmen toward the flying blade, he released his hold on her. She rushed forward and hit him with all her weight. He stumbled backwards, and his arm loosened around Aria’s neck.

  Carmen grabbed Aria with one hand and yanked her away from him. In the same movement, she stuck her weapon against his head and squeezed her hand around the firing mechanism. Before she knew what was happening, a crushing pressure closed around the back of her neck, and she flew back across the room.

  She hit the ground with a thud and rolled over on her back. Her eyes fluttered, and her vision cleared before she noticed she still held Aria’s shirt clutched in her fist. Her friend lay on the ground at her side, and the three remaining Romarie backed into their vehicle with Angondrans surrounding them on all sides. Albinim fired one more time to cover their retreat, and the door closed on them.

  Chapter 7

  Renier gave Carmen his hand and helped her up. “Are you all right?”

  She turned on him. “Why did you let them get away? I could have killed Orbnim, and all of us working together could have killed the rest of them.”

  Renier nodded. “I pulled you away before you could kill him.”

  Carmen spun around. “You pulled me away? But why? I told you he stole us from our home world. You should have let me kill him.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “You got your friend away from him, but you were so busy attacking him you didn’t see the other one.”

  She frowned. “What other one?”

  “The other Romarie,” he replied. “The one behind you.”

  “Do you mean Tinim?” she asked. “What about him?”

  “You didn’t see him aim his weapon at you,” Renier replied. “He would have killed you if I hadn’t dragged you away. The only way to save your life was to let the three of them leave.”

  Carmen stared at the empty place where the space vehicle used to be. Then she sighed. “I have to find my friends.”

  “The Romarie departed alone,” he told her. “All your friends are on this planet—somewhere.”

  Carmen looked around the hall. Most of the Angondrans had left, but she couldn’t see Penelope Ann or Marissa anywhere.. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “The gathering is over,” Renier replied. “They came to see the Romarie and see what they had to offer, but now that they are gone, the factions will go back to their own territories.”

  She studied him. “Will you go back to your own territory, too?”

  He nodded. “This gathering hall is in Ursidrean territory. Felsite territory is on the other side of the continent. I will go back there to my people.”

  Carmen looked around her. Rotnim’s body still lay motionless where he’d fallen. “What about us? What will happen to us?”

  He peered into her eyes. “What would you like to happen to you?”

  “Well, of course we’d like to go home,” she replied. “We can’t stay here.”

  Renier shook his shaggy head. “I’m afraid that is impossible. You can’t leave Angondra.”

  “Why not?” she asked. “We don’t belong here.”

  “We don’t have any vehicle that can transport you through space,” he told her. “We keep to our own planet, so you have no way of getting off this world.”

  She stared at him. “But how is that possible? The Romarie traveled here. You must have some way of traveling....”

  He shrugged. “My people used to have space vehicles, but not anymore. We gave them up when we realized traveling through space meant dealing with species like the Romarie. We prefer to stay here, where we can be at relative peace with each other.”

  Carmen’s shoulders sagged. “This can’t be happening. We can’t be stuck here, not after everything we’ve been through.”

  He studied her. “Why don’t you come back to Felsite territory with me? You might decide you like it there.”

  She shook her head. “There must be a way to get back to Earth.”

  He paused. Then he took hold of her arm and drew her toward the open door of the hall. The light shining through from outside brought her out of her despair. “What about Aria?”

  He cast a glance at her friend. “She can come, too.”

  “How can we find the other women?” Carmen asked.

  He looked away. “One problem at a time. You need somewhere to go, and I’m taking you with me. I’ll protect you and make sure you get everything you need.”

  Carmen’s spirits faltered. She had no more will to resist. She’s accomplished her goal to free her friends from the Romarie, only to discover they were trapped in a different kind of prison, a much more impenetrable prison than the one they just left. At least on board the Romarie’s space vessel, they had some chance to
get back to Earth. Now Carmen watched that hope slip away, never to return. How could she bear the agony of that?

  She couldn’t stand to look at Aria. How could she face these women when she’d failed them so miserably? She let Renier lead her out of the hall and sit her down somewhere. She didn’t notice anything around her until she started moving.

  That’s when she noticed the trees and mountains and rivers moving past her. She was sitting on a flat palanquin rolling over the ground, but Carmen couldn’t see any mechanism to make it move. A towering sky stretched up to heaven, and three bright moons hung among the clouds. A fresh breeze blew into Carmen’s face and revived her.

  “What is this place?” she asked Renier.

  “I told you. This is Ursidrean territory.” He pointed at the mountains. “They have their caves up there, and they spend the winters sealed up inside them. They only come out in spring, but they raise their young in their caves before they come out to hunt.”

  Carmen cocked her head. “They sound like bears. Now that I think of it, they sort of look like bears, too.”

  Renier kept his eyes facing front. “I don’t know what bears are, but the Ursidreans are Angondrans like the rest of us, even if they have some strange ways.”

  “All the factions must seem strange to one another,” she remarked. “The Aqinas seem the strangest of all, with their webbed feet.”

  “They aren’t as strange as the Avitras,” he replied. “The Avitras live in trees, and they chatter constantly to each other about everything you can imagine. They know everything there is to know about everyone on this planet. Collecting information is their pride and joy. We don’t have very many rules on this planet, but the ones we have come from the Avitras. As a matter of fact, they probably know where your friends are at this moment.”

  Carmen whirled around. “Really? Can’t we go and ask them? I don’t think I’ll be able to rest until I know they’re safe.”

  “They are safe,” he replied. “You can take my word on that. No one on Angondra would harm your friends. We all understand what happened to you and how the Romarie abducted you from your home. No Angondran will do anything to any of you. We will do everything in our power to help you and make you comfortable here, even though we can’t help you leave.”