KARRIN: Warrior Woman (Excalibur Saga Book 4)

by Sahara Foley

  Lurga stood and helped Karrin to her feet. “A warrior can go blind here with all these odd, contrasting colors.” He grumbled as they walked over to Cal. “Where is this place?”

  Pam was holding Cal’s wrist. “His pulse is steady and strong, and he’s breathing without any difficulty. I can’t find any physical trauma. It’s like he’s asleep or in a coma.” She peered up at Karrin with a look of anguish.

  The young woman bit her lip, her heart filled with sadness for her grandmother. Pam and Cal had been together more years than Karrin could imagine. How would I feel if it were Lurga laying there? Her eyes filled with tears, but she shook her head. Crying wasn’t going to get them out of here.

  Karrin glanced up at the man she loved. “We have no idea where we are. I’m just glad your seeder pistols worked. We were almost worm food.” She shuddered, thinking how close they were to being pulled into that foul, dark, cavernous mouth. As the not sun dried the thick saliva on her skin, she started itching like crazy. The young woman scrubbed at the sand and spit stuck to her flesh when Lurga stopped her hand.

  “You look like you have fought a trigrolo and lost,” Lurga growled with concern.

  Karrin peered down at her body. In her struggle to free herself, her top and pants had been shredded, and purple and yellow bruises were forming. She glanced over at Pam, who didn’t appear any better. She chuckled, slugging Lurga in the arm. “These are probably from you, you big ape. You almost broke my ribs. They sure hurt like they are.” She touched them and grimaced.

  Lurga looked down with contrition. “I am sorry. I thought I had lost you, again.” A tear slid down his rough, gray cheek.

  The young woman wiped away his tears. “I know, my Lurga. I thought I had lost you, again, too. Promise me that we will never leave the other behind. I would rather die with you than live alone.”

  Lurga peered deep into Karrin’s eye. “As my word is my bond, we shall never part, again.”

  When a huge, dark shadow fell over them, Pam exclaimed, “Oh shit. We’ve got company.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Glancing up, Lurga bared his teeth at the strange sight above him and pushed Karrin behind him. “What in the blazes is that?”

  “Some kind of alien that shoots golden beams, which hurt like hell,” Pam explained.

  Lurga stepped away from Karrin, drawing one of his pistols. Aiming at the new threat, he pushed the fire button. As usual, no noise could be heard, but they all watched as the silver grid shot from the barrel and impacted with the orange being filling the sky with the black lines.

  Hissing and yowling permeated the air as hundreds of pieces of orange squares rained down toward them. The chunks, some with black lines, drifted down like feathers wafting in a breeze. Mesmerized, the trio observed as the first alien square hit the ground twenty feet away. It exploded in a fierce blast of orange fire, hurling sand everywhere.

  “Holy shit,” Karrin shouted as she quickly looked up. The sky above them was littered with drifting bombs.

  “Grab Cal, Lurga,” Pam instructed as she jumped to her feet. “Run for the overhang, Karrin. Hurry.”

  Lurga flung Excalibur over his shoulder and took off after the two fleeing women. They dodged and swerved around the floating pieces, falling to their knees several times from the ground-jarring explosions. By the time they reached the overhang, the curtain of death was only seven feet above them, and Lurga had to crouch to avoid them.

  After the girls scurried inside on hands and knees, the huge warrior threw the Shalit across their laps., They laid him on his side, so he faced them. Using his broad back as a shield, Lurga huddled over them.

  Explosion after explosion rocked their small cave. Lurga grunted and grimaced in pain when his back was assaulted by the flying sand and gray rocks. The girls had their hands over their ears; eyes shut against the dirt being thrown into their enclosure around the warrior’s body. Eventually, the artillery barrage subsided to one or two staggered explosions. After a while, silence and stillness replaced the cacophony.

  Grimacing, Lurga turned on his tender posterior, trying not to cause more dust to fly. He carefully scanned the sky, but all the orange squares were gone. He sat up, feeling something sticky all over his back. He peered over his shoulder but didn’t notice anything. “Am I injured, little one?”

  Karrin giggled and reached out, tearing off a big chunk of gooey, white dough. She held it out to Lurga. “No, it's chunks of the slugs that wanted to eat us.” She gave him a sly smile, then threw the piece in her mouth and licked her fingers.

  Lurga’s eyes flew open, along with his mouth, and he turned a pasty white color. He choked, gagging, and suddenly threw up all over Karrin’s lap.

  The retching sound and smell of bile caused Karrin to vomit in his lap.

  Pam leaned her head back against the rock cliff and laughed so hard her eyes teared up. When her laughter turned to sobs, Karrin hugged her as she cried with her grandmother.

  Lurga shook his head at the crying women and crawled out, a few feet away from the overhang. The overpowering stink of vomit was making him queasy again. Taking handfuls of the yellow sand, he rubbed it against what was left of his flight suit, trying to clean himself.

  A soft rustling sound made his head jerk up on full alert. With a shout, he somersaulted backward into the small cave. Dozens of wooden slivers were stuck in the ground where he’d been kneeling.

  “What’s wrong?” Karrin wiped her nose on a piece of torn cloth.

  Lurga pointed up at the cliffs that made the corral. “There are little trees all around the perimeter, shooting at us.”

  “Oh, those are the stickmen,” Pam said after blowing her nose. “They can’t hurt you. Your hide is tougher than mine, and they barely scratched me. You want me to go out and chase the bad men away for you?” She gave him a saucy wink.

  “No,” Lurga growled, baring his teeth, and crawled back outside. As soon as he stood, he looked like a gray porcupine, covered with black quills. He roared in anger as he brushed off the four-inch slivers like grains of sand. “Should I fire upon them?” He raised his seeder pistol.

  Pam bit her lip, thinking about the ramifications. This was their new home, and they needed to make a point, but not make enemies at the same time. “I really don’t want to hurt them, but even though we can. However, we need to show them we mean business, so just shoot a few of them.”

  After squeezing the fire button, the warrior exclaimed in surprise, “They burst into little, silver flames. What kind of creatures are they?”

  “Well, that would be a long story,” Pam said. “Basically, they’re made out of some type of wood. They captured us and tried feeding us to their pets.”

  Lurga gave a ferocious growl and drew his other pistol. “You dare feed my Warrior Woman to your worms? You shall all die.” He fired again with both weapons, and within minutes, the rim of the corral was littered with small, silver bonfires. He saw six of them fleeing and turned them into burning torches, too.

  Concerned Lurga’s rage was leading him to a killing spree, Karrin grabbed his trembling arm. “Lurga, please, stop. We’re the strangers here. Besides, they saved us from one of the orange flying aliens.” She scanned the skies to see if any more were around. “If another of those orange ones does show up, please, don’t shoot it, okay?”

  Lurga threw his head back as his breathing vents hissed and gurgled with laughter. “Only if I have plenty of rocks overhead, little one.” He hugged her, but more gently, this time.

  Groaning, Excalibur rubbed his eyes. Pam and Karrin rushed to his side and knelt as he struggled to sit up.

  “You’re awake.” Pam grabbed his flailing arm and helped him rise. “How do you feel? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, I think,” Excalibur rasped. He leaned his elbows on his raised knees, resting his head in his hands. After a few seconds, he ran his hands through his tangled brown hair, then lifted his head and peered around. “Where are we, anyway?”

&n
bsp; Hugging her husband, Pam laid her head on his manly shoulder, tears of relief glimmering in her sapphire-colored eyes. “We don’t have a clue. But, we do know we’re powerless here. I’m actually surprised Lurga’s weapons worked. How did you find us, honey? I thought we would never see each other, again.” She squeezed him tighter as a sob escaped her lips.

  Excalibur stared at the dirt between his knees. “I didn’t do it. Lurga brought us here.” He glanced up at the sky and gave a heavy sigh. “There is only one place we can be with an orange sky and yellow sand. I was here one time, in Shalit form, many years before I became Excalibur. And, FYI, Lurga’s weapons don’t work here.”

  “What?!” three voices asked as one.

  With Pam’s over-assistance, her husband crawled out of the small cave and rose on unsteady legs. Shielding his eyes, he peered around some more. “Yup. No denying it. This is the place. When Lurga and I ended up trapped in that other world with the bugs, I could faintly feel the vibrations from this place. This is a reverse Universe. If you have powers, you won’t have them here.”

  He rolled his shoulders to loosen them up. “I was hoping this is where you girl’s teleported to. I told Lurga to concentrate on Karrin. I used what little I had left of my mental powers to help him link with her. Human emotions, plus the Husken Silver were a great catalyst. Once he made the connection, I passed out, and here we are. Not that I want to be.” He gave a small grin.

  “My pistols did work,” Lurga protested, indicating the last of the burning stickmen.

  “Only because you thought they would,” Excalibur corrected. “Here, you have the psychic abilities. You just don’t realize it. You could’ve pointed your finger at them and said ‘Pow,’ and it would’ve worked the same way. You saved my life, Warrior. I thank you.” The Shalit gave a slight bow toward the astonished Lurga.

  “You saved us, too,” Karrin said as she hugged the surprised Ispepyein Warrior.

  “I saved a Shalit? I have powers?” Lurga’s voice was full of wonder.

  “Yes, you do, but, unfortunately, they won’t help us return home,” replied Excalibur.

  “Wait a minute. Shouldn’t he be able to take us out the way he brought you here?” Pam picked at one of her fingers, her brow creased in confusion.

  Excalibur shook his head, a frown marring his handsome face. “This place doesn’t work that way. Lurga will only be able to take us to where we escaped from. Anyone wanna go back and find out if those bugs are still hungry?”

  “No way,” Karrin said, turning her nose up with displeasure.

  “Don’t be so quick to say no,” Pam disagreed. “If Lurga can get us there, Karrin and I should be able to take us the rest of the way back to our Universe.”

  “It’s not that simple, my love.” Excalibur reached out and brushed sand off his wife’s beautiful face. “Your abilities will only return after we are far from this reversed reality. Even the one with the bugs isn’t far enough away.”

  “Shit. Nothing has gone right since this whole Srell business started,” Karrin grumbled as she paced nervously around. Cocking her head to the side, she stopped and studied her grandfather. “Right. You’ve been here before. We can leave the same way you did.”

  Excalibur held up his hands as expectant, excited eyes trained on him. “Whoa. You need to know what happened. I was in Shalit form, pursuing an enemy's ship, who was trying to kill me. I guess I wasn’t paying attention to where I was, and I must’ve crossed the time slip into this Universe. The next thing I remember, I was floating in the green sea, utterly helpless.

  “I laid in that damn water for days while this strange, huge energy being hovered over me. I think it was curious. In the end, it came down and started firing at me with these golden beams. I’m not sure if it was trying to absorb me, but those golden rays felt similar to my silver powers, so I absorbed them instead.

  “Once I was fully charged, I teleported back to my Universe. The golden energy was so much stronger than my silver, but once I got back, over time, it disappeared. However, it enhanced my own abilities, and I became the most powerful Shalit in our history.”

  “Wait,” Karrin interrupted, excited at what she learned. “Are you saying you became a one-of-a-kind Shalit, because of the golden energy you absorbed?”

  Excalibur nodded, a puzzled look on his face.

  “Don’t you see? That’s why I’m so different. Why I’m the only one able to stop the Srells. I must have some of that golden power, too.” Karrin smiled with relief. “Since we started this quest, I’ve obsessed over the fact I was the only one able to save our world. I kept wondering ‘why me?’ Now, I understand. Thank you.” She gave her grandfather a hug.

  Though he hugged her back, Excalibur frowned. “I’m happy for you, but you understand that the only way to return home is to find another one. Right?”

  Lurga shuffled his feet, a guilty look on his face. “The energy being who shot golden beams, did it happen to be orange with black grid lines?”

  “Yes. Yes, it did,” Excalibur responded excitedly. He peered up at the sky. “Have you seen it? If it comes close enough and shoots you, you can use the golden power to send us home.”

  Karrin’s shoulders slumped in defeat as Pam sighed. “You’re right, Karrin. Nothing is going right, today.”

  “Why? What happened?” Excalibur searched their faces, but neither woman would meet his eyes.

  “You see all those orange squares lying in the rocks?” Lurga pointed up at the edge of the horseshoe-shaped cliffs. “That’s it. I had to shoot it as it was attacking us.”

  “Oh no,” Excalibur groaned. “We’re stuck here.”

  “It’s not Lurga’s fault,” said Karrin, rushing to his defense. “It was trying to kill us, and Lurga had no choice, but to shoot it.”

  “I totally understand, Karrin, and I didn’t mean to place blame.” The Shalit extended his hand toward the warrior. “I’m sorry. Thank you so much for protecting our women.”

  Excalibur had a large hand, but it was engulfed by Lurga’s huge one. The warrior grinned back at him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. “Of course.”

  Excalibur returned the hand squeeze and released his grip. “Let’s hope another one is flying around, or we’re stuck here.”

  Shielding her eyes with one hand, Pam pointed at the corral entrance. “Oh-oh. Our friends are back. With reinforcements.”

  Excalibur studied the milling group of strange beings. “They look like firewood, ready to be stacked. I don’t remember seeing them here before.”

  “Firewood,” Lurga said and chuckled. “An apt description. Watch.” He shot his Seeder pistol into the throng of several hundred stick people, a gun that shouldn’t work in this place. The first row burst into a silver, blazing fire as the rest took off running, screeching like violins.

  “Stop,” Excalibur ordered. “You’ve proved your point. However, we need to catch a few of them and find out if they know the whereabouts of another golden energy being.”

  The two men took off running as the girls hobbled behind them.

  Lurga snatched one of the thin beings as it streaked past him, and the next thing the warrior knew, he had two squirming pieces in his hands. “Ugh,” he grunted in disgust and threw the wiggling fragments to the ground. Then, he sprinted after another one.

  “Careful,” Pam warned as she tackled a slow-moving one to the ground, and straddled it with her weight on her knees. “They break really easy.”

  Lurga grabbed another one by its thin arm. It broke off and crumpled in his fist. “They are made of paper,” he complained as he rubbed his hand on his pants leg.

  “Never mind,” Pam said over the screaming of the one she had pinned to the ground. “Karrin has one, too. That should be plenty. Just don’t touch them, okay?”

  Lurga growled in response.

  From around the outside of the corral came Excalibur, holding a stickman in each hand up in the air. He grimaced as they kicked and screeched like improperly
played violins. He dumped his captives on the ground next to Pam and Karrin’s, and then herded them into the small cave at the back of the corral.

  “I’ve never seen anything like them,” the Shalit said. “It took me several tries before I didn’t crush them to death. I didn’t notice any blood, water, or even sap, which you’d expect since they are nothing more than branches.”

  “They’re a bunch of dried up twigs.” Lurga scrunched his face in disgust.

  “Like stick bugs,” Pam offered.

  “And, look at their heads,” Excalibur said, continuing his assessment. “From a distance, they remind me of pool balls sitting on top of cue sticks. They don’t appear to have ears. Probably the only way they can stand their inferno squawking.”

  “If their screeching is their language, how do we talk to them?” Lurga inquired.

  “Not we. You,” Excalibur replied with a grin. “You’re the one with the powers, buddy.”

  Lurga bared his teeth at his friend. When he fluttered his breathing vents, Karrin knew Lurga was out of his element. He kept staring at the broken pieces of stickmen in the corral, and the smoldering piles of ash ringing the rim.

  Her heart ached for his uncertainty. Ispepyeins were trained as fighters, not diplomats. To a warrior, killing was easier than talking.

  Karrin took Lurga’s huge gray hand in her small one. “Talking to them is no different than how you mentally communicate with your sister. Focus on one of them and think in your mind what you want to say.” She gave his hand a squeeze and smiled reassuringly.

  Nodding, Lurga turned toward the four prisoners and picked one who appeared unharmed. As soon as he opened his mind to it, they all fell to their stick knees, raising their arms toward the hulking warrior.

  “Finally. The respect and honor an Ispepyein Warrior deserves,” Lurga grunted.

  Excalibur nudged him. “Uh, I don’t think they're fans. Look behind you.”

  The warrior spun around with Pam and Karrin following suit. The sand bounced at their feet as the ground vibrated.