“Princess?”
Lalia halted at the whispered word, stumbling over her feet. She felt Katrina’s hand on her back as her daughter tried to stop. While her legs remained still, the force kept her upper body moving. She stuck out her hands to catch herself. The jolt in her elbows came as no surprise, but she didn’t expect the gut-churning pain in her ankle. She’d tripped over something, distracted by the young voice she’d heard.
“Mom, are you okay?”
“Yes.” She spat out dirt and ignored the agony radiating up her leg. “Did you hear that? Someone called me.” She lifted her head to look around.
“I did.” Katrina helped Lalia to her feet.
“No, I heard someone else.” Lalia couldn’t put full pressure on her left leg, but she would get by. “We’ve got to find whoever it was. And we can’t shout for them. The Erebus don’t usually go into the woods, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try, tear down trees to make a path.”
She hobbled back the way they’d come, glancing for any place someone could hide. “Hello?”
A tiny head with jet-black hair peeked out from under a tree root. “Princess, is it really you?”
Lalia sucked in a deep breath. The little girl from her arrival. Gwenodyn. “Yes, but what are you doing here? Where are your parents?”
“My father is dead. And I think my mother is, too.” The little girl crept out a bit more and peeked around them. “She shoved us out the back door. Told us to run to the forest and hide when the Erebus came. Said if they found her, they wouldn’t come looking for us.”
The thought broke her heart. Gwenodyn had no parents, lost them to the Erebus like she had. But.... “Us? Who else is with you?”
“My tibbar, Lerikus.” The girl ducked back into the hole and came out with a white bundle of fur.
While the tibbar reminded Lalia of rabbits back on Earth, they fit in her palm and had ears like a hamster. She’d had two growing up, though her father called them vermin and hated the idea of having any in the palace.
“Oh, he’s so cute.” Katrina reached down to pet the tibbar in Gwenodyn’s hand.
The creature purred then rolled over to get its belly rubbed.
“Okay, we’ve gotta go.” Lalia examined the trees around them to gain her bearings once more. “We’re almost at the old Defender barracks. We’ll stay there until help comes.”
“Um, Princess?” Gwenodyn tugged on her sleeve.
“Yes, sweetie?”
Gwenodyn wrinkled her nose as if she’d never heard the term before. But Lalia didn’t know how well it translated. She remembered Hemerick, but couldn’t help the Earth terms she’d become accustomed to.
“Um, I’ve been there already. I just kept running and running until I reached it. But then I had to turn back because the Erebus were there, too.”
“Okay, change of plans.” Lalia looked deep into the forest, where things went from green to pitch black, the flora so thick it didn’t let any light in. “There is a place we can hide where the Erebus will never find us.”
She limped toward the darkness. Once they reached their destination, they’d be safe, but she worried no one would find them. Because she’d never told anyone about the shelter she’d found as a child.
A roar came from behind, something large crashing through the trees. Panic weighed on Lalia’s chest. They didn’t have enough time to get there. Not if the enemy decided to enter the woods.
She shoved the girls ahead. “Head for the darkness. There’s a bunker in there, Katrina. It locks from the inside.” They would have to go there without her. But she could slow the Erebus down, give them a chance to get away.
“Mom.” Katrina glanced back. “I can’t. I don’t know where I’m going.”
The call of their enemy rang out, shaking the trees. Too close.
“Run!” Lalia ignored the pain in her ankle as she sped up, grabbing Gwenodyn’s hand on her way past. She had to get the girls to safety. If she didn’t, she’d die trying.
Chapter Six
Bryce shuffled off the ship and onto the carrier, sorrow threatening to tear him into a million pieces. Early reports cited Hemera as completely destroyed, nothing left but decomposing bodies covered in black tar. No survivors.
When the Defenders had returned, they’d shot dead any Erebus they’d found still on the planet, though many had likely already sailed on to another. Defenders searched the palace, the commoner village, and the old barracks. Every Hemera had perished. And all the bodies disintegrated into puddles of black goo.
Yet, he refused to believe Lalia and Katrina dead. Fate could not be so cruel as to reunite him with the love of his life and the daughter he’d never known, then to steal them away again.
Stepping onto the lift, Bryce re-examined the reports Pollux had forwarded to him. Over one hundred bodies found in the palace, the number half of what should have been there. And no one had been found in Lalia or Katrina’s rooms, but a body puddle outside them, in the hallway. One assumed to be male from the clothing left behind.
With those facts, he held onto the hope they’d escaped, found a place to hide with others, and hadn’t raced to the old barracks.
Bryce swallowed the lump in his throat. He’d made love to Lalia there, promised to cherish her forever. Now the place sat tarnished with the blood of innocent Hemera. Dozens of Hemera had fled to the place they’d believed safe, only to be struck down. Did Lalia and Katrina lay among them?
Cosmos, the Alliance needed to make WHM technology more widely available. So many more could have escaped, jumped to safety at the first sign of the Erebus.
A tear slipped down his cheek. He slammed his fist against the wall. The pain in his hand didn’t compare to the shredding of his heart.
The lift door opened. Instead of the empty hall he’d hoped for, Bryce stared at a page with a wide grin stretching his face.
“Major, I have good news.”
“A planet has just been destroyed.” The thought of growling at the young Vella crossed his mind. Instead, he sidestepped him and headed to the control room to meet the leader of the Galactic Alliance. “There is no good news today.”
“But they’ve found some.” The page rushed in front of him. “Alive! They’re coming out of the trees. Kimba told me to tell you right away.”
The news came like a solar flare on the ice planet, Ramos. Did the survivors include his loved ones? “Thank you.” He raced to the control room with renewed hope.
Bustling into the overcrowded room, Bryce searched for the woman who could give him the answers he desired. He spotted the short purple-tipped tentacles of her head and rushed over. “Kimba, pardon my forwardness, but please tell me you have found the princess and her daughter.”
Kimba ran a webbed hand over the scales on her cheeks. “I wish I could, but we haven’t found them yet. We haven’t found any of the royal family alive. But, the Hemera still seem to be coming out of nowhere, so we haven’t given up hope.” The leader spun around in her chair and stared at Bryce, her forehead wrinkled. “Why the sudden interest in those two? You’ve saved plenty of beings from the Erebus before, including, I heard, a young Defender with a death wish.”
“He was just doing his job.” Bryce glanced to the floor and dug his toes into the insoles of his boots. He yearned to retire, already had the forms filled out. Yet, revealing information kept secret for so long proved harder than he expected. “I was stationed on Hemera before the first Erebus attack.”
Kimba nodded. “Yes, I remember.”
“Princess Lalia met her suitors during that time. She didn’t like any of them and tried to sneak away from the palace on many occasions.”
The leader clapped her hands together. “Cosmos! The rumors were true? You snuck Princess Lalia into the barracks? You had a relationship with her?”
Heat flared across his cheeks. Though his former company knew the truth, had helped slip her in and given them time to be alone, no one else had learned his secret. “Yes, we
were very much in love.”
Still are. And he dreaded the idea of never seeing her again.
“Interesting.” She lined up the tips of her fingers and pressed them together. “And the daughter?”
“She is a part of the princess’s life, and therefore important to me as well.” Though he would never reveal she was his daughter, not to the Alliance. Becoming a Defender had been his dream, but he hated the idea of forcing his child into the chaotic life, especially since he never knew he had a child until recently. Kalaren boys, and many girls as well, enlisted on their sixteenth Galactic birthday. Being a Defender was an honor, and everyone on his planet grew up with the knowledge they would one day serve the Alliance, either by becoming a Defender or working at the training base. Katrina hadn’t. But he also wanted time with her to learn of her dreams for the future.
“And what will happen when we find her?” Kimba leaned back and crossed her arms. “You have a distant look in your eyes. Is my best Defender losing focus?”
Perhaps not the best time to hand in his retirement documents. He would need something to keep him busy if the Alliance found his family dead. Gaspra, he couldn’t think such thoughts. “I just really want to find them alive, ma’am. That is my focus right now.”
“Understood. I suggest you retire to your bunk and get some rest. There will be plenty to do once we reach Hemera’s orbit.”
“Before I do, what will be done to protect Hemera from further attacks? Fortinimus had the chance—”
“Not our concern right now, Major.” She waved her hand. “But I will discuss the issue with the new leader. Until then, we need to focus on the recovery of the planet and its people.”
Bryce nodded then left the room. Tiredness weighed him down, but he doubted he could rest. Not until he found his family.
***
Bryce hurried off the platform ahead of his squad and weaved a path through Defenders and traumatized Hemera. The survivors walked around in a state of shock and mourning loved ones common to those who’d witnessed so much destruction. But, he was in no frame of mind to help them. Not until he found Lalia and Katrina alive. He searched faces, none of them familiar, the Defenders already on the planet all new, squads he had never worked with before. Likely their first mission.
In the middle of them all, he spotted Pollux interviewing a survivor and receiving reports from Defenders. He had to know if they’d located the princess.
The Warwa noticed Bryce and nodded. “Excuse me a moment,” he said to the Hemera in front of him.
Bryce tensed as he rushed to the other man, hoping he held good news. “Please tell me you’ve found them.”
“No.” Pollux grabbed his arm. “But someone reported seeing them in the forest, running from an Erebus.”
“Fornax!” The news slammed his heart harder.
“There’s more.” Pollux moved his fingers across the tablet with great speed. “They had a little girl with them. And the princess was limping.”
Bryce looked to the sky and screamed. He should have listened to Lalia when she said she didn’t want to go back to Hemera; his fault for not admitting his relationship to the Alliance. He could have refused the assignment, insisted on staying with Lalia and Katrina on the planet. Then he wouldn’t be wondering if they were still alive, unharmed.
“Please tell me there are Defenders out looking for them.” If not, he’d roll the head of the major in charge of this mission.
“Yes, Zulu is out there.” He showed Bryce coordinates on his screen. “That’s where they are now.”
“Thanks.” Bryce pulled out his WHM and plugged in the position.
The hole had barely opened when he leaped through. On the other side, he searched for the first Defender he saw, a Mingot, and grabbed him by the front of his uniform. “Where are they?” He would not rest until he found them.
***
With a cough, Lalia opened her eyes. Her throat burned, and her face felt tight under a heavy layer of hardness. She had no idea what coated her skin, though she could still breathe and see the outline of a person in her blurred vision. Who and where remained a mystery. She should be dead after the Erebus had wrapped a tentacle around her good ankle, giving her no chance to escape.
The smell of dirt filled her nostrils, probably from landing on her face. She remembered yelling at her daughter and Gwenodyn to keep running, and their screams for her to fight her attacker. But she’d never had the chance. She’d blacked out then, sure she’d never live to see another day.
Something wet brushed across her cheek, removing part of the caked-on layer of tar, the air refreshing to her skin.
She blinked several times to clear her vision. The figure became more defined. Katrina, tears streaming down her face, her bottom lip trembling. Lalia reached up to wipe away her tears. Instead, her body spasmed, objecting to the movement. Cosmos, what had happened to her?
“Mom, please don’t die.”
Die? No, her body ached all over, and some hard film covered her skin, but she wasn’t dead.
“I’m here, sweetie.” Her words didn’t come out as intended. More like a moan. Not even decipherable to her own ears. What in Gaspra? She lay trapped in a body no longer mobile.
The wetness came again, removing more of the film from her face. Nice, but it didn’t help with the ability to move or communicate. She needed to talk to her daughter, tell her she remained alive.
Another figure appeared above her. “Don’t worry, Princess. I can hear you.”
It was Gwenodyn. They both survived, thank the universe.
“Yes, we’re both alive, but the Erebus who tried to kill you isn’t.” A grin grew across the little girl’s face. “Your daughter took it down better than any Defender.”
Her stomach clenched. Katrina had witnessed so much destruction, been forced to kill again, all since Lalia’s past had caught up with her.
Pounding came from above, and dirt sprinkled down. The force hit steel again, like someone banging on a door, trying to get in. The hatch. Somehow, Katrina had gotten her down to the bunker, but it wouldn’t help much if the Erebus joined them. They’d be trapped. No chance to escape.
The hatch rattled again, not a knocking but like someone trying to pry it open. Cosmos, they were doomed and she could do nothing to help the girls.
“Don’t worry, Princess.” Gwenodyn placed her palm on Lalia’s clean cheek. “We’re not doomed. It’s the Defenders, here to help us.”
Chapter Seven
Bryce stared at the dead Erebus, a ropral stick embedded in the creature’s head. A clean kill, one very few Defenders had ever performed. With their plazers, no one needed to get so close. But someone had, somehow who knew the ropral tree was poisonous to the Erebus. A rogue Defender, or a Hemera who had studied their enemy?
“Found it just like this, Major.” The Mingot Defender pointed his bony finger past the Erebus and into a thicket of trees. “There’s a trail of waste leading in there. Not sure if another Erebus followed someone, or what, but it leads to a hatch door in the ground. Terish’s trying to get it open, see what or who is inside.”
“Thanks.” Bryce patted the young Defender on the shoulder then took off to follow the trail. Whether good or bad, he had a feeling he would find his answers beyond the hatch.
Three Defenders circled the hatch when he arrived, each taking a turn pounding, kicking, and yanking on it, trying to get it open.
Though they didn’t seem to be accomplishing anything, and he needed them out of the way. “What’s going on here?”
The Defenders stopped and saluted him. Major O’Shaunessy stepped forward. “We’re trying to get the hatch open, but I think it’s locked from the inside. I sent Oflaira to get some equipment to open it, but she hasn’t returned yet.”
“May I try?” If his family waited down there, he could get them out, and not by pounding.
O’Shaunessy moved out of the way and gestured for him to try. “Go ahead.”
After a deep
breath, Bryce knocked on the hatch, no need to bang or try to yank it open. He leaned in close. “Lalia? Katrina? Are you in there?”
“Huh,” someone said from behind Bryce. “Never thought of that.”
Sometimes the young Defenders didn’t stop to think before they acted. He knocked again. “It’s Bryce. No need to worry. The Erebus are all gone. The hatch is surrounded by Defenders.”
A clang came from the other side of the door. Then another, as if heavy locks moved aside. Or so he hoped.
The hatch shifted a bit. Bryce grabbed the handle to help the person on the other side. His stomach dropped when he opened it to a little girl with black hair. He swallowed his disappointment as he lifted her out. He was a Defender, and nothing mattered more than saving people from the Erebus.
The little girl’s eyes widened, and she smiled a wide, toothy grin. “You’re Bryce.”
He nodded. “Yes, and you are?”
“Gwenodyn.” She wiggled in his arms until he set her down. “The princess is down there. So is Katrina, but she won’t believe the princess is trapped in her body.”
He peered through the opening and saw Lalia lying on a table, Katrina beside her, wiping Erebus waste from her skin. Alive. Letting the wave of relief flow through him, Bryce closed his eyes. He’d found them, finally. With that load off his mind, he switched to Defender mode. He had to get both women out and Lalia to the med bay on the carrier. They’d brought medical supplies with them to Hemera, but from what he’d seen of the princess, she needed more than what they had on hand. That is, if he truly did believe the little girl that Lalia was trapped in her body, because anyone he’d seen with so much waste on them didn’t survive the next ten minutes.
In no time, he and the other Defenders had Lalia strapped to a board and pulled her out of the bunker. Naf had joined them and assured Bryce the little girl spoke correctly; the princess remained alive, but poisoned by the Erebus waste. How she managed to survive proved a mystery to Bryce and every other Defender. No one had ever lived to share what Erebus waste tasted like, no matter how many they’d tried to save. Yet, Lalia wasn’t talking. She couldn’t even move.
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