Rex shook his head, and I could tell he was very conflicted. “I can’t take her there, Vi’den. There are other Elders who would kill her as soon as looked at her because of their fear.”
“I will make sure that Tabitha stays safe,” Vi’den said. His voice was low, and he spoke in earnest. It was just words, but what he said was spoken with such calm confidence I found myself relaxing. I believed him.
“How?” I asked.
“I will enact the Law of Witness,” he answered.
I saw understanding dawn on Rex’s face, but I felt no understanding of my own. “What is that?”
“It ensures your safety,” Vi’den explained. “The Law of Witness dictates that the guest in question cannot be harmed while at P’otes-tat Ulti. To do so would be punishable by death.”
“It means I can take you to the Forum and the others have no choice but to listen to what we have to say,” Rex said quietly. His eyes had a faraway look, and I knew he was deep in thought.
“Yes.” Vi’den nodded, and he looked back to Rex. “But you must bring her immediately. You cannot afford for her to be found by anyone before she has a chance to speak.”
“What am I supposed to say?” I asked, now feeling a slight rise of panic. “What am I supposed to tell them?”
Rex lifted his gaze to me, then got to his feet and offered a hand to help me to mine. I took it as he said, “We tell them the truth. We tell them you pose no threat to the A’li-uud, that I brought you back to ascertain what you knew and, over time, we fell in love. We tell them you’re innocent.”
“What could I possibly be guilty of?” I murmured.
“Exactly,” he said, cupping my face in his hands, kissing me gently.
Vi’den rose from the pouf on which he sat and approached us. “We must go now. Take her by the winds; we don’t have time for you to make the journey. Bring her straight to the antechamber before she can be seen. You will wait there with her until you are called.”
Rex and I both nodded our understanding, and Vi’den walked back to the double doors. The moment he opened them and stepped outside, he was gone. Rex took my hand, and we also walked outside, but we didn’t disappear right away. He led me to the fountain before turning to me.
“This is still very dangerous,” he said. “I wouldn’t do it if we didn’t have another choice. I want you to know that.”
“I do know that,” I reassured him.
He bent forward and kissed me again, and, before our lips parted, we were flying. When my feet hit the ground again, I gasped. Before me, there was a massive castle-like structure, complete with ornate doors as tall as a house. It was breathtaking in its beauty, but it was also dark and foreboding like the descriptions of castles in gothic romance novels. I shivered involuntarily as my nerves set in.
“This way,” Rex said, grabbing me by the wrist, pulling me away from the doors.
We rounded part of the castle until we came to a much smaller, single door of ordinary construction. He opened it for me, and I entered first. The room was a big one, but it felt cramped somehow. Statues and shelves lined with tomes and wall-hanging tapestries seemed to fill every single inch, and the gray stone walls felt like they were sinking in on me. There was just one other door in the room, and I was certain it was the door that would bring me before the Elders. I eyed it with trepidation.
Rex came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, saying nothing. We stood there together without saying anything. Very faintly, I could hear the low rumble of multiple voices speaking at once on the other side of the door, but I couldn’t make out anything being said. It wasn’t until the door swung open—so unexpectedly that I jumped back against Rex—that I could properly hear everything.
“You’re choosing a human’s safety over the safety of our race, Vi’den,” a male was saying furiously. “The Law of Witness was not written to protect terrorists!”
“We won’t know if she’s a terrorist until we speak to her,” another voice chimed in. This one was strange, almost gurgling in its syllable.
“Please bring forth Elder Rexstrenu’us Et’Herba Cam-pes’tribus and the human.”
I recognized the third voice as Vi’den’s. I looked over my shoulder at Rex, and he nodded at me. I turned back toward the door, and the small, young A’li-uud who had opened it brandished a hand, motioning me to walk into the chamber.
“I love you,” Rex whispered in my ear.
I swallowed hard, choked back my fear, and said, “I love you too.”
The Story Continues Here
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Albaterra Mates 2
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Duke
Streaks of fiery orange light barreled across the sky and exploded as they crashed into the ground. Faces were everywhere, some terrified, some furious. I ducked and weaved between my warriors with my fuchsia-bladed sword lifted over my head, slicing it downward into the skull of the nearest human I reached.
It was war.
The sounds of shouting voices and explosions were deafening, and a dull ringing in my ears became the only thing I could hear. Humans armed with guns, knives, and lasers battled my army without mercy. I watched as a large human, with a grizzly beard, engaged in a vicious melee with my brother, and fury overtook me. As the beard-man’s knife swept just shy of Dane’s abdomen, I leapt forward and plunged my sword into the human’s face. He stumbled backward, taking the sword with him, and fell limply to the ground.
“Nice,” Dane said with an appreciative laugh.
I wrenched my sword from the dead human’s head and turned to shout something to my brother, but, just as my eyes fell on his grinning mouth, I heard a pop. Dane’s moon-white eyes widened into plates, and he went stiff. Then, almost in slow motion, he crumpled to the ground, and I saw the hole in the back of his head. Thirty feet behind him, a human stood with a gun raised and a satisfied expression on his face.
My vision flickered in horror. Dane’s unmoving body posed no obstacle for me as I let out a howl of sorrowful pain and flew to the human in an instant. I saw rather than felt my arm streaking through the air, and I heard the crunch of the blade on bone as I sank my sword through the murderer’s ribcage. He let out a strange gurgling sound before going silent and dropping to his knees. I watched, enraged, as a thick stream of blood poured from his mouth onto the snow beneath him, and then he fell forward. The sword’s hilt met the ground with force and shoved the blade completely through him.
I didn’t bother retrieving my weapon. Whirling around, I raced back to Dane, pulling him into my arms. His eyes gazed lifelessly up at me, and I knew my brother was gone. Another howl was yanked from me, and my entire world went black with grief.
“Duke! Wake up!”
I was shaken from my sleep rigorously, and I bolted upright. My entire body felt icy from the horror of my dream, and it took me a moment to realize I was in my bed. Standing beside me, very much alive, there was Dane.
“You had a bad dream?” he asked, looking at me quizzically. “You were screaming.”
I put a hand to my forehead and closed my eyes. Anger was coursing through me, and I replied to him in a low, furious growl. “We never should have let those humans leave Albaterra. They know about us now, and they will come to kill us all.”
Dane shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and I looked up at him. “Was that your dream?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said hoarsely. “I dreamed they killed you.”
His jaw tightened, and I could see the warrior in him squaring his shoulders. “They can try,” he said aggressively. Still shaken by the dream, I could only nod in response. “Anyway,” he continued, “you have to go. Forum has been called.”
I looked up at him in surprise. It was the middle of the night, and
Forum was never called in the middle of the night unless there was a critical matter to address. Then, my face twisted in rage, and I nodded again.
“I hope the Council wishes to talk about the humans,” I said bitterly.
The chamber was abuzz with voices of various tones and timbres bouncing off the stone walls. There was hardly any light, just the streaming rays of white moon filtering through the glass ceiling several stories overhead and the dim glow of orange embers in the center of the room. Even through the darkness, however, I could make out the forms of eleven others seated in a perfect circle on high-backed thrones. The figure all the way across from me, who was unarguably the tallest and likely the slenderest of those gathered, rose to his feet in one fluid, graceful movement.
“We shall take presence.” His voice was refined and serene, but it rang out over the mumblings and brought them to a silence as though he had shouted. “Elder Vi’den Et’Solum Fini’tribus of Finiba.”
One by one, the others announced their names and kingdoms in clockwise order. It was the ritual opening of Forum, the governmental sessions attended by each Elder in charge of a kingdom on the planet Albaterra that dictated the laws and actions of our A’li-uud race. I was the Elder of Montemba, Albaterra’s mountainous kingdom; home to the most disciplined warriors on the planet. It had been an honor passed down to me by my father and one I took very seriously.
I waited for an appropriate amount of time to pass after the Elder to my right had announced his presence before getting swiftly to my feet. “Elder Du’ciact Et’Petrum Montem’tribus of Montemba,” I said gruffly.
As the rest of the circle took presence, I glanced at Rex out of the corner of my eye. His cerulean skin seemed paler than usual—an ironic observation, given how the blueness of my own skin was so light it could have almost been considered white—and his jaw was clenched in tense anticipation. I could see he was expecting the same topic as I was, but his feelings on the matter differed greatly from mine.
“Forum shall commence.”
Vi’den’s proclamation prompted everyone to sit once more. He, however, remained standing, and his wise voice permeated the chamber as he began to address us.
“My fellow Elders,” he said calmly, spreading his hands out before him as he spoke. “We are here on this still night to discuss the concern weighing on many shoulders. As our newest brother, Elder Fru’nik of Skulona was not one of our numbers during the unfolding of recent events, I think it is prudent to explain in some detail the most significant points. Are there any objections?”
There were quiet murmurs and shaking heads in response. I looked to my right. About halfway between Vi’den and myself sat the boulder like Fru’nik, his small eyes staring unblinkingly at the smoldering embers in the very heart of our circle. Torik was his predecessor as Elder for Skulona, the Albaterran kingdom of caves, and he’d lived up to the reputation of his tribespeople as hard-headed and bloodthirsty. After attempting to kill Rex for Rex’s love and loyalty for a human, Torik had been tried by the Elders and sentenced to imprisonment. He was subsequently stripped of his title and authority, and Fru’nik had been named Elder in his place. I didn’t know Fru’nik well, but my impression of him so far was one of only slightly better demeanor and questionably less intelligence than Torik.
“Upon learning of the humans’ presence in the Andromeda galaxy, the Council elected to destroy their ships with the intent to protect our race from potential infiltration. Our first missile struck the Paragon, which crashed in the kingdom of Campestria, which, as we all know, is governed by our brother, Rex.” Vi’den inclined his head toward Rex, who returned the gesture stiffly. “Rex took in one of the survivors while having the others confined to his village’s dungeons for questioning. The Council learned at a later date that Rex had begun a romantic affair with the human he’d rescued, and he was tried for treason on the grounds that he failed to inform the Council of his actions regarding this particular human.”
“Her name is Tabitha,” Rex said beside me through gritted teeth.
Vi’den paused. It was well-known amongst the Elders that he held special affection for Rex, as he’d served as Rex’s mentor into the Elderhood. Nevertheless, the aged A’li-uud looked sternly at his protégé and said, “I understand the awkwardness of hearing your tale recounted, Rex, but certain proprieties must be followed during Forum.”
Rex’s jaw flexed, but he dropped his eyes in submission. Vi’den nodded once approvingly.
“Carrying on, then,” he continued. “Rex was cleared of the treason charge, and the human was released into his care. A short while later, he came to me with a revelation about the Council’s decision to destroy the remaining ships in the human fleet. It was his feeling that exterminating them without just cause would be senseless murder and the opposite of what our race stands for. I agreed.”
He slowly scanned his eyes from A’li-uud to A’li-uud, then, as though silently impressing upon each and every one of us that Rex did not stand alone on that matter.
“In hopes of overturning the ruling, Rex traveled to several kingdoms to meet with other Elders and persuade them to his side.” I nodded imperceptibly, remembering Rex’s visit to Montemba and his arguments to gain my support. In the end, I’d conceded. “During his travels, he was ambushed by Torik, who made an attempt on his life. Torik was tried and convicted of attempted murder. While all of this was happening on Albaterra, Tabitha”—Vi’den gave Rex a meaningful look—“had ventured into space with members of the Paragon crew and several of Rex’s best warriors with the intent of warning the other ships about the danger we posed to them. When one of the ships, the Epitome, learned there were human survivors stranded on our planet, they landed in Campestria, where we had assembled to meet them. There was a misunderstanding, in which fighting commenced, but peace prevailed in the end, and we permitted the humans to take their survivors and return to Earth.”
Fru’nik finally moved, swinging his gaze to Vi’den with a noticeably angry expression on his face. He was a mean-faced being, to begin with, but the anger twisted his face into something more akin to demonic fury. Apparently, he was just as prejudiced as Torik had been.
“Now that we are all caught up, we need to discuss where we stand regarding the humans’ knowledge of us and what actions we will take, if any,” Vi’den finished, clasping his hands in front of his torso.
Rex looked ready to argue at a moments’ notice, and I realized there was high likelihood we would end up having a disagreement. I considered him a friend in many ways; it had been the basis for my vote to allow Tabitha to remain with him without consequence. Human governments and authority figures knowing of the A’li-uud, however, was a different matter entirely, and I was not going to allow my friendship to interfere with the safety of my people and planet.
“I do not see any difference between attacking the ships and attacking Earth,” Ma’ris said in his strange, gurgling voice. He was the Elder of Maquaria, an underwater kingdom, and he certainly looked the part. His clothes and hair always appeared to be dripping, and he spoke in a way that made him sound as if he was drowning. “If it would be senseless murder to decimate ships near us, it would be nothing short of evil genocide to murder Earthlings simply for existing.”
“We have been watching them for over a thousand years,” I combatted. “Everything we have observed indicates that humans are selfish, destructive creatures. Even if they pose no threat to our kind, we would be doing the universe a service by ensuring their extinction, at the very least.”
I immediately felt Rex’s ghost-white eyes boring into the side of my head, and I turned to face him. He looked both surprised and enraged by my words, but there was also a shadow of hurt beneath his features. It was evident he felt betrayed by my stance.
“I am sorry, friend,” I told him honestly. “I know Tabitha has opened your heart to humankind in a way none of us can understand, but this is not about her. We have a duty to our tribesmen.”
“D
on’t talk to me about my duty,” Rex snapped, shooting daggers at me with his harsh gaze. “During everything that happened over the last few months, I never lost a warrior, and none of my people were at risk. I am well-aware of my duty, and I’m able to fulfill it while maintaining the heart of the A’li-uud. A lot like your father, actually.”
My temper flared, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that the argument you’ll make when the humans bear down on us with fear in their eyes and hate in their hearts?” I demanded. “They have murdered millions of their own, Rex. You are a fool if you believe they would not do the same to us. Do not let your love for the human bathe you in delusional idealism.”
“Leave Tabitha out of this!” he barked, springing to his feet.
I jumped to my feet as well, closing the space between us by a step, and shot back, “She is already in this, thanks to you! If you had never hidden her away without our approval, the survivors would still be in their dungeons, and none of this would be happening! You are the reason we have turned to violence!”
He made a move as though to swing his fist at me, but the Elder beside him, Kharid, seized him by the elbow and wrenched him backward. Rex stumbled over his feet as he tried to straighten up again. Fire burned in his eyes, and his skin was no longer pale but flushed with blue adrenaline.
“Rex!” Vi’den called his name out with a harshness not often heard in the calm voice. He, too, had eyes of fire, though they were not borne of rage. “You will comport yourself appropriately.”
There was a moment in which I was sure Rex was going to defy his mentor and charge at me, but he seemed to regain control of himself. Squaring his shoulders, he nodded and glared at me.
“Thank you,” Vi’den said, sounding back to normal once more.
I slowly eased back into my seat, and Rex mirrored my movement. We both turned toward Vi’den. I was seething, primarily because my friend was interpreting my efforts to protect my race as cruel intentions, but also because he’d dared to bring up my father. If there was one doubt I had about myself as an Elder, it was of my capability to be as great a leader as my father had been. Rex knew it was a hit below the belt, and the fact that he had taken it left me gnashing my teeth as Vi’den resumed speaking.
Jasih: Paranormal Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Àlien Mates Book 2) Page 40