Aquilla cocked his head and blinked his eyes. “You’re miles away from where you climbed up into the canopy. Your Felsite friend is still waiting for you there.”
Carmen shifted from one foot to the other. “Which way do I go to get back to him?”
Aquilla started forward. “I will lead you to him. I would neglect my duty to you and to your friend if I let you get lost in this forest, and I can see you possess no sense of direction at all. I believe your species is truly helpless.”
He led the way, and they hiked back through the forest in silence. After an eternity of featureless forest, they found Renier waiting under the same tree. His eyes widened when he saw Carmen coming through the forest with Aquilla at her side. He studied Carmen’s face. Then he narrowed his eyes at Aquilla. “Is everything in order?”
Aquilla gestured at Carmen. “Ask her.”
Carmen turned her back on him and crossed her arms over her chest. Renier faced Aquilla with his fists clenched and his teeth bared. “What’s the meaning of this?”
Aquilla snorted. Then he sprang off the ground and into the treetops, leaving Carmen and Renier alone in the silence.
Only after he left did Carmen steal a peek at Renier’s face. “Let’s go.”
He didn’t move. “What is going on here? What happened up there? Did they hurt you? I swear to high heaven, if they harmed so much as a hair on your head, I’ll...”
Carmen started walking, and Renier was forced to catch up. “They didn’t do anything. They’ve been as kind and welcoming to Penelope Ann as the Felsite have been to me.”
The walk down the mountain went faster and easier than hiking up, and they found the palanquin platform sitting on top of the snails’ shells. Carmen didn’t bother to ask how they knew to get ready to leave. She took her place on the palanquin, and Renier sat beside her. The palanquin set off back the way they'd come toward Felsite territory.
After several hours, Renier turned to Carmen. “If the Avitras did anything to you or to your friend, I need to know about it. It could affect our relations with them in the future.”
Carmen sighed. “They didn’t do anything to me or my friend. I told you that.”
“Then why are you so upset?” he asked. “Did you invite your friend to come back to Felsite territory the way we planned?”
“That’s just the thing,” Carmen replied. “I invited her, but she wants to stay here. She feels a connection with the Avitras she never felt before, kind of like….” She trailed off.
He studied her. Then he nodded. “I understand.”
Carmen shook her head. “I told her we could work together to find a way off this planet, but she won’t even try. She says she would stay with the Avitras even if Angondra had space flight capability. She doesn't want to be with her own people, and she doesn't want to go back to Earth.” A lump stuck in her throat.
Renier peered into her eyes. “Listen to me, Carmen. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
She snorted. “That’s because I'm from another planet.”
He didn’t laugh. “I don’t want to lose you. Stay here. Stay with me and be my mate. Don't spend the next fifty years driving yourself insane trying to find a way off this planet. Settle here and be happy—with me and with the Felsite. Let us be your family. I can give you everything you would have had on Earth.”
“Except the company of other humans,” she interrupted.
He shrugged. “So Penelope Ann wants to stay with the Avitras. Aria is back home with the Felsite. You’ll have her, and when we find Marissa, the three of you will be together. Isn't that good enough? Don't you think you can be happy with me?”
Carmen blushed, and her hand naturally extended toward his. “I’ve never met anyone like you before, either, Renier, and I don't mean because you're an alien. You saved me from the Romarie, and you've been by my side ever since. If I was going to stay on this planet, I couldn't do any better than to stay with you.”
Renier chose his next words with care. “You will stay on this planet, Carmen. There is no way off this planet, and you’ll only make yourself and your friends unhappy by searching for a way.”
“But you let the Romarie come here once before,” Carmen pointed out. “You could invite them here again and ambush them. We could kill them and steal their space ship and fly back to Earth.”
He shook his head. “You didn’t hear the Alphas talking after the battle at the gathering. They will never agree to invite the Romarie here again. Even the Ursidreans, who agreed to it last time, won't make the same mistake. You and your friends will stay here, and I'd like to believe you stayed because you wanted to stay with me, the same way your friend Penelope Ann chose to stay with Aquilla.”
Carmen’s head whipped around. “How did you know she chose to stay with Aquilla?”
Renier shrugged. “It was pretty obvious from the way he acted, and now you’re describing Penelope Ann choosing to dedicate herself to the Avitras. Why would she do that without the love of a male to guide her? I can't imagine a woman like her committing herself to anyone less than an Alpha.”
Carmen turned away, but her silence gave him all the answer he needed. The palanquin rolled on through the countryside. Carmen studied the landscape. Towering escarpments of sheer rock jutted into an iridescent sky. Bright blue rivers cut through canyons of layered stone. It really was a beautiful planet. If she was stuck out in space a hundred light years from Earth, she couldn’t ask for a nicer place to do it. And she couldn't ask for a nicer bunch of people to be stuck with.
Maybe, just maybe, she could be happy here—with Renier. Why did she continue to struggle against the inevitable? Why did she refuse to accept the reality of her situation? What did she really have to go back to on Earth that could match the future Renier offered her here?
From a great distance, she became aware of his presence at her side. He dominated her awareness so she couldn’t turn away from him. Her resistance melted, and she sank into the void of his embrace, where care and anguish no longer existed. They fell back on the palanquin, and their bodies melded side by side on the swaying platform. He brought her into the glowing sphere of his presence, and she didn't need to know anymore.
Night enveloped them, and the palanquin rolled on through miles of impenetrable countryside. Angondra's three moons didn't disturb their union, until the first streaks of dawn light found them in front of Melnili again. Carmen sat up and gazed at the city glowing in the early morning sunshine. Renier's apartment called to her up there somewhere with all the welcome any home ever offered her. Aria was there, and Leroni. She would form connections and relationships with other Felsite until Melnili became her home and the Felsite became her own people.
Renier handed her down from the palanquin, and the snails dispersed. Carmen and Renier stepped up onto the stairs leading to their apartment—their home. She cast a glance over her shoulder.
The sun spread over the plain below, down to the river bottom with its swaying trees and verdant meadows. A profound peace filled her heart, and Renier took her hand. “Are you ready to go in?” She smiled up at him, and his mouth closed over hers in passionate memory of their night together.
At that moment, a shout brought their attention to the plain in front of the city, and a lone figure stood up on the hill opposite them. The light set off his black silhouette, and Carmen squinted to make him out. But Renier growled under his breath. “Caleb!”
At the same moment, a line of Lycaon jumped up in a long line along the rolling hillside. The line stretched from end of the city to the other. Did they have the city surrounded? Renier let out an ear-splitting roar, and a hundred other Felsite answered him from the ramparts.
No sooner had the noise died than Caleb lifted his head and shouted across the meadow. “Felsite encampment! Hear me!”
“Who dares trespass on Felsite territory?” Renier bellowed. “Who dares set his foot on our sovereign soil?”
Caleb didn’t answer. Another figure rose from
its hiding place at his side and stood up tall and true by his side. The sun caught fire on the figure’s head, and Carmen jumped up on the wall next to Renier. “Marissa!”
The Lycaon stood still in their long line and faced off with the Felsite on the city walls, but Carmen and Marissa ran to each other across the gap and threw themselves into each other’s arms. Carmen dabbed her tear-stained eyes on Marissa’s shoulder. “I thought I would never see you again.”
Marissa held her at arm’s length and smiled. “I’m all right. I'm just glad to see you're okay. I didn't know what happened to you after the battle. Then I got word you were here, so I had to come and see you.”
Carmen waved back toward the city. “Aria’s here, too. She's inside. She's pretty shaken up after what happened at the gathering hall, but now that you're here, she'll recover. We can all work together to….”
Marissa shook her head. “I’m not staying here. I'm going back with the Lycaon. I only came to see you and make sure you're okay.”
Carmen stared at her. “What are you going back for?”
“I’m staying with Caleb,” she replied. “Don’t you remember how he saved my life when the Romarie almost shot me? No one has ever done anything like that for me before. I'm staying with the Lycaon.”
Carmen swallowed. “Don’t you want to stay with other humans? I don't understand why you would want to stay with the Lycaon when you have no other humans near you.”
Marissa glanced over her shoulder toward the city. “You said Aria’s here. Do you know where Penelope Ann is?”
Carmen shrugged and looked away. “She’s with the Avitras. She doesn't want to come back, either. She's with Aquilla, the Alpha of her faction.”
“Well, there you go,” Marissa replied. “I’m not the only one who's found something that means more than human company. I've had human company all my life, but I've never had any connection with anyone the way I've had with the Lycaon. Did you know they live in packs? The packs have a strong bond of family loyalty. As Caleb's mate, I'll always have a family and a place in the faction. I've yearned for this all my life, and now I've got it.”
Carmen couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. “Please don’t leave, Marissa. I can't stand you leaving this way. First Penelope Ann and now you. Please don't do this to me.”
Marissa nodded toward Renier glaring at her from the rampart. “It looks to me like you might have the same thing here. You won’t be alone. You'll find your place in your faction, and you'll find love and family, too, the same way we have. You will be happy.”
Carmen let her chin fall to her chest. Tears ran down her cheeks, and her shoulders shook with sobs. “I can’t stand this!”
Marissa patted her on the shoulder. “Go to him. Let him comfort you. He’s the one you should be clinging to now, not us.”
Carmen wept into her hands. Marissa hugged her one last time. Then she strode away across the field to Caleb. When she reached his side, she looked back and waved to Carmen. One by one, the Lycaon warriors dropped down behind the hill and disappeared. Caleb and Marissa waited until they stood alone before the Felsite city. Then they stepped down into nothing and disappeared.
Chapter 12
Deep in the night, Carmen rolled over and buried herself in Renier’s arms. His breath warmed her scalp, and his presence gave her all the comfort she could need. She no longer needed anyone else. He was Alpha of the Felsite faction, and her connection with him was one and the same as her connection to her faction. She belonged with him and she belonged with the Felsite. She belonged on Angondra now.
All at once, a roar sounded from the top of the city. It echoed through passages and stairways into every apartment. From far and near, feet trampled the hallways and doors slammed. In a fraction of an instant, Renier tore himself from Carmen’s arms and launched himself out of bed. He tore the door off its hinges.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“We’re under attack!” he shouted. “The sentry sounded the alarm, calling every warrior to the ramparts. We have to defend the city.”
He didn’t say anything else, but barreled out of the room. Before Carmen could follow him, he raced out of the apartment and was gone. Carmen struggled into her clothes and ran down the stairs. Aria’s bedroom door remained closed. A hint of concern for her friend nagged at her heart, but as soon as she passed out of the apartment and down the stairs, she forgot all about Aria in the rush of warriors and the rattle of weapons. Male voices shouted back and forth, and some spectators stuck their heads out of their apartments. Carmen noticed Leroni among them. “What's going on?”
Leroni shook her head. “The sentry noticed a battalion of Ursidreans moving in to attack the city.”
Carmen peered into the dark. “Where are they?”
“We can’t see them from here,” Leroni replied, “but they’re there. The sentry wouldn’t sound the alarm unless he was sure they were here.”
“Is there anywhere we can go to see better?” Carmen asked.
Leroni smiled and jerked her head back toward the city. “Follow me.”
She led Carmen back through the maze of stairways and halls to the very top rampart of the city. They ducked into an empty apartment. Leroni pointed through a big window, where the plain spread out before them in stark relief. “There. You can see them now.”
Carmen strained her eyes. These Felsite must have exceptional night vision, because she couldn’t make out anything more than a black line moving up from the river toward the city. Far below them, Felsite warriors ran up and down. Their voices echoed up to Carmen's ears. Renier moved in the thick of the crowd, pointing and issuing orders to the others. He stood on the wall with his burly frame dominating the field.
All at once, a bright streak of blue light shot through the night. It zinged across the field and hit the city walls. It smashed the stone to pieces and sent a rain of shards down on the warrior's heads. The Felsite warriors formed ranks at the wall with Renier in their lead, but a hundred other lightning shots sailed over the meadow. They struck the walls and shivered Melnili's great structure to its foundations.
Carmen held her breath and clenched her fists in anxiety. Was this the end of her bright future? Would these two factions fall to war on the very eve of her arrival? How could she face losing the Felsite after just losing both Penelope Ann and Marissa?
The Felsite charged out at the enemy, who came within sight of the city. The blazing lamps and candles of the city lit up the Ursidreans so Carmen saw them clearly. Their powerful forms shook the ground under their feet, and they carried heavy weapons like the blaster weapons she’s seen them use at the gathering hall. Every warrior held at least two handheld weapons, and behind the main body of soldiers, heavy cannons mounted on rolling machines bore down on the city.
These weapons sent sprays of energetic fire over the city and into the Felsite ranks. Bodies flew in all directions, and the city’s strong stone and timber construction crumbled to powder. Carmen dug her fingernails into her palm. This couldn't be happening.
Just then, a terrible volley of fire blasted through the Felsite ranks, and Carmen caught sight of Renier flying off the wall. He sailed backwards and hit a stone wall with such force it shattered and crumbled on top of him. Carmen started forward with a cry. Leroni tried to hold her back, but Carmen broke her grip and charged down the stairs. She had to get to him, to help him, to save him. She couldn’t lose him, too.
She didn’t notice the terrible fire raining down on all sides. She didn’t notice the Felsite warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Ursidreans in the byways and courtyards of Melnili. She saw only Renier. She knelt at his side with Leroni next to her. Her hands nursed his wounds. All around her, the thunder of battle fell into silence. Nothing remained in the living universe but the two of them.
In her mind, she picked him up and carried him back to their apartment, but in reality, it must have been other Felsite who carried him. She could never budge his enormous bulk
by herself. He lay on the sleeping platform in the main room, and she sat at his side and tended his battered frame.
Leroni hung back. All at once, Carmen realized the din of battle no longer rattled the city. Deadly silence filled the night. She glanced around, and Leroni stepped toward her. “He’ll be all right now. He just needs to rest.”
Renier groaned and his eyes rolled back in his head. He pushed himself off the bed with his hand over his eyes. “My head! What happened?”
Carmen burst into tears of joy and threw her arms around him. “Thank God you’re all right!”
Just then, the door opened and an enormous Ursidrean strode in. Carmen jumped to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
Leroni moved between them. “He’s come to offer terms.”
“Terms!” Carmen bellowed. “His people attacked the city. What does he think we’re going to do—surrender to him? We'll fight to the death.”
Leroni touched her arm. “We don’t have to. He attacked the city so he could come here and offer terms to us. He's Alpha of his faction. Just listen to what he has to say.”
Renier dropped his feet over the side of the platform, but he couldn't raise himself from his seat. His head hung between his shoulders, but he glared at the Ursidrean out of the corner of his eye. “What do you want, Donen? What's so important that you would attack our city and kill our people?”
The Ursidrean’s voice rumbled through the apartment. “What’s so important? Don't you know? It's the Earth female I come for. All our factions suffer from lack of females, so I can find no female suitable to be my mate. How can I ensure the future of my people when I cannot leave our leadership to my heirs?”
Carmen’s fury blazed. “Do you think you can buy and sell us like cattle? Who do you think you are, to attack this city and demand a female for yourself? You’re no better than the Romarie.”
Donen faced her. “I invited the Romarie here out of desperation. They trade quality females all over the galaxy, and I wondered if we might benefit from them, too. When I saw you and your friends at the gathering hall, I realized I was mistaken. I would never take a female by force. I only come to ask your consideration for a people in desperate straits. Is it asking too much to ask you to help us in our hour of need?”
Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3) Page 20