So we are taught. The Order was pushed aside then. Now we must be ready. Ready to emerge and lead Tajss to a renaissance. One in tune with the planet itself, as we were before. Before the Devastation and before the corruption that shouted down and sidelined our founder.
Now I’m promoted. Years of work, all my hopes that had been aimed at this singular point in time, and it’s hollow. Empty, meaningless, because never in a million years did I dream it would happen without Archion at my side.
I’d throw it all away to see him emerging from the desert, coming home. Frowning, I turn and watch the warriors sparring below. I barely see them though. What does any of this matter without my brother here to share it?
6
ASHLEE
T he barren terrain slides by outside the rover window. I wonder if it’s always been like this? Was Tajss always such a hellhole? The Zmaj don’t recall, or if they do, they don’t talk about it. The Devastation, as they call it, sounds terrible.
War always is, I guess, but I’ve only seen the idea in vids. My ancestors didn’t leave Earth because of war. That was a thing of the past. They left because of overpopulation. Maybe that’s a downfall of resolving war? Or, having resolved war, left us free to expand and explore?
Yeah, I like that better. Anything else is depressing and I prefer the good by far.
The rover is a godsend. I wish we had more of them available. This one, our only one, is held together by spit and duct tape as an engineer friend of mine used to say back on the ship. The terrain is deceptive—it looks smooth and beautiful but it’s actually rough and tough. Where the sand is smooth the rover sinks and has to fight for its forward motion. Where it’s not smoothed the rover has to climb over the strewn rocks and pockmarks, most of which are hidden by thin layers of the ever-blowing sand.
Luckily, we’re fully prepared to be out here. We have enough rations, meteor glass, shock sticks, and epis to more than a make a roundtrip. Now we only have to come back victorious, and in one piece for that matter.
“Turn a little toward the right,” Archion directs Nora.
“Copy that.”
Nora is driving and Archion sits beside her in the copilot seat. He’s been guiding her since he’s the only one who knows where we’re going. It makes us uncomfortably dependent on him, but he refused to draw a map or show us anything. I can’t tell what he’s guiding us by. I’ve been trying to spot any kind of landmark, anything that looks different, but each time he gives an order I see nothing that would indicate why he did.
I understand his need for complete secrecy, but it sure does make things inconvenient for the rest of us. If something happens to Archion, we’re never making contact, or worse, surviving. I let that go. Some factors are just out of our control.
We’re far enough away from the city now that the area around us is unfamiliar. Nora and I guzzle water, the incessant heat even in the rover wearing on us mercilessly. Archion, of course, appears largely unaffected. The Zmaj don’t waste water through sweat no matter how hot they get. They’re much better adapted to this ridiculously hot climate than we are, even with the epis to help us adjust.
“You want some jerky?” I ask Nora and Archion, pulling some out for myself.
It was marinated in Delilah’s special sauce and then smoked. Not only does it hold up well, it’s downright delicious. Perfect travel food.
“Sure,” Nora agrees, holding out her hand for me to set a piece onto it. “Thank you.”
Archion shakes his head when I offer him some.
“No, thank you.”
I settle back into my seat and tear off a piece of the meat, chewing it slowly and thinking.
We’ve traveled far enough now I decide to bring some things up, see if I can pry out some answers to at least some of my questions.
“Nora, what do you think about Malcolm’s dreams?” I ask idly. “Any idea what they may have been about?”
I’m questioning Nora but my attention is on Archion. His shoulders tense at my question. Interesting. I’m definitely on the right track.
“I don’t know,” Nora admits. “But I believe him.” She looks over at Archion. “I saw Archion in a vision before I ever saw him in person. I didn’t know what it meant even when he did appear.” She shrugs. “I’m guessing that whatever Malcolm saw will make more sense once it actually happens.”
“Maybe,” I murmur, watching Archion carefully. “But that means the dreams or visions or whatever you want to call them aren’t really all that useful.”
Nora shakes her head and makes a sound at the back of her throat.
“I wouldn’t say that. I knew Archion’s appearance was significant when I saw him.” She looks at him. “Not that I wouldn’t have paid attention without a vision, but it was... a nice heads up, you know?”
“Maybe,” I say, speaking slowly. “But Malcolm is so young. If he were a little older, maybe we could have picked his brain more. That might have helped.”
“Perhaps we should stop and eat,” Archion interjects, blinking rapidly and shifting in his seat.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence. His mood shifted as soon as I started talking about Malcolm’s dreams, but I don’t push. I do take note, adding it to my mental collection. Trying to dive any deeper into the subject now won’t help.
“Sure,” Nora says, glancing at her mate. “Where to?”
“There, to the left. There should be a small oasis over that rise.”
Nora obediently turns the rover in that direction. We drive over the sand dune he pointed out. I almost think he changed direction to interrupt the flow of conversation. That there won’t be anything over the dune. I’m quickly proven wrong on that front.
As soon as we crest the dune, I see it. A small oasis. It’s nothing to write home about, but it has enough trees and foliage to help beat the heat for a bit. Archion is obviously familiar with this area. A point in his favor, but also another piece of information to file away.
At the very least, it indicates he really is directing us somewhere that is familiar to him. I don’t think the other Zmaj know any of the rest stops in this direction. Well, at least he’s not just leading us out in a random direction to get away or run off with Nora. That was always a possibility.
Nora parks the car under the shade of a ridiculously tall—for Tajss—tree and we get out. Sighing, I arch my back to get the kinks out and walk to stretch my legs after the long drive. As the feeling slowly comes back to my butt, I watch Archion and Nora.
His eyes are hardly ever off her, even while he seems constantly on alert. Completely aware of his surroundings and any threat that may appear. He opens the back of the rover and takes out some of the provisions. Nora and I set up a little impromptu picnic, setting out more of the smoked jerky.
“It was about time to give the engine a break anyway,” Nora notes. “This heat is hard on it.”
“I can’t think of anything worse than having it break down out here.” I look around at the miles of nothingness all around us.
“You could say that again,” Nora snorts.
The desert is a harsh place, even when not considering all the dangerous beasts that we could stumble across out here. The heat and scarcity of water alone is enough to do someone in. Best not to think too hard about that though. I’d never leave the city if I do. Well... if it meant leaving the lab, maybe I still would.
Archion remains silent, not sitting with Nora and me but remaining standing and silently chewing on his food. Nora and I continue to chat while we eat, but Archion isn’t joining in. Is he still affected by the dream topic I brought up?
“How much farther is it?” I ask him.
He’s the only one of us who would know.
“Not much farther,” Archion answers, keeping it vague of course.
He stiffens, frowning, his tail rising behind him.
“What’s wrong?” Nora asks.
Archion shakes his head, the frown deepening.
“Wait here,” he
orders.
Then he slips away.
My heart beats faster as adrenaline pumps through. Muscles quivering, breath shallow, and the hair on my arms standing on end. Shifting position to a crouch I’m ready to run for the rover but holding still as Archion ordered. Out here, not listening to a Zmaj will get you killed and I’m not stupid.
If this is a tactic to avoid conversation, it’s going a little far. Nora and I exchange a worried glance in the wake of his quick departure. She’s positioned herself similarly to me.
“What was that about?” I whisper.
She shakes her head, her eyes darting around and sweat running down her brow.
“I don’t know,” she whispers, looking at where Archion disappeared.
The lovely little picnic spot feels oddly exposed. Seconds tick past, counted off by the pounding of my heart. Afraid to even move, I bite my lip as my own sweat drips into my eyes, making them burn. Slowly I reach up and wipe it away when it starts to blur my vision.
I don’t know how long we sit there, tense and waiting. Maybe ten minutes pass. Archion slips into view from behind one of the thick tree trunks, a tense look upon his face.
“Invaders are patrolling nearby,” he explains, pitching his voice low so it won’t carry. “It’s best to take shelter before they see us.”
Invaders? Shit. My heart was pounding, but now it’s in overtime. My breasts hurt it’s thrumming so hard and I don’t dare to breathe. Eyes wide, I look around for a place to hide. Archion is good, really good, but he’s not enough to take on a whole group of the hostile aliens. Nora and I aren’t going to be much of an asset in a fight with the Invaders. They’re too big and they’re sure to have guns, while we only have shock sticks and Archion has his lochaber.
Neither Nora nor I argue. Grabbing our shock sticks from the rover we follow Archion, moving as silently as possible. The three of us move in a crouch, bent in half. It’s uncomfortable as heck. My thighs burn and my lower back aches, but I grit my teeth and push past it.
Archion leads us to a nearby ridge covered with some foliage that I hope isn’t one of the multiple types of plants on Tajss that will eat you. Damn, Tajss is tough. The foliage isn’t pretty—red leaves that look like a kind of enlarged ivy—which is a good sign that it’s not dangerous. The prettiest things on Tajss are often the most deadly.
Archion drops onto his stomach and crawls along the ground up the ridge. The ground is sharp rock, cutting my hands and digging through my pants as I crawl across it. When we reach the top of the ridge Archion goes still and I mimic his action.
He scans the area below us. I’m too scared to take a breath, and my lungs burn until I exhale as slow as I can to avoid making any noise, then inhale. Archion is looking to the left. I strain my neck to try and see what he’s looking at but I can’t from my position.
He motions with one hand indicating we should follow. He shifts around, somehow managing to move his massive body through the foliage without causing any undue disturbance. It moves more as Nora and I pass under it than him. Another testament to his skill and training.
We run out of cover as make our way out of the small oasis. The hard, sharp ground softens until we’re on the sand again. A break in the ground suddenly appears in front of me, dropping into a shadowed crevasse. It’s dark and relatively cool inside the small space.
Archion takes Nora’s hand and a moment later he lowers her into it. Our eyes meet as her head drops below the edge. She gives me a reassuring smile, but my stomach clamps tight and a cold sweat covers my back.
When Archion turns to me I stare at him wide-eyed. I can’t do this. No. I can’t go into that tight, small space. I’ll take my chances out here.
He frowns and motions insistently, grabbing for my hand. I jerk it away and he hisses. Shaking my head violently side to side I crawl backward. He grabs for me again and this time he’s too fast. He clamps down on my forearm with a vise-like strength. I struggle but can’t break his grip.
“No, no, no.” I have enough presence of mind not to scream, but fear is rising faster and faster.
Scrabbling my feet and grasping with my free hand, I try to stop his inexorable pull forward. It doesn’t do me any good. I can’t break free.
I know I’m being stupid but I’m watching myself react and I can’t stop it. My heart is in my throat, I can’t breathe, and my vision blurs as he lowers me into the crack in the ground.
I immediately feel trapped and I freeze. I want to move. Want to scream. Want to claw my way free, but I can’t. The rock walls are so close I can’t take a full breath. Sweat pours down my body, soaking the cloth of my clothes. I’m going to die.
Panting, I manage to turn my head and see the opening. The bright, open space calls to me, but it’s on the other side of Nora. If I could push past her I could be free!
I go for it. Sliding toward her, trying to force her out of my way.
“Ashlee,” she hisses, digging her feet into the ground and not moving.
Damn it, move!
“Ashlee,” she whispers more insistent.
She grabs my face between her hands, forcing me to look at her. Tears are streaming down my face, I’m panting, I can’t do this.
Archion drops into the crevasse on the other side of her. His massive form makes it worse, blocking out the light and my vision of the free, open space.
“Please,” I beg her, shaking, unable to control myself.
Archion glances toward me, a deep frown on his face, and he hisses, shaking his head. He pulls a knife out, gripping the hilt tightly. There’s a moment I’m certain he’s going to cut my throat to shut me up. It’s the only thing that breaks my panic.
Nora runs her hands over my face, staring at me, wiping the sweat away from my eyes. I take a shaky breath, close my eyes, and focus on another breath. I’m okay. Stupid, but okay. Nora kisses my forehead.
“It’s okay,” she whispers.
I bite off any response and hold my breath when I hear the approaching sound of footsteps. We all go completely still. Maybe they won’t come here. Maybe they’ll pass us by and we’ll have a cool, close-call story to tell everyone when we get back. Maybe—
A figure blocks the light from the opening. It’s silhouetted against the sunlight, so I can’t make out specific features, though I know from past experience that textured blue skin covers that elongated head. The full black eyes with no whites to them blink into the shadows where we’re hiding, thick brow ridges shadowing them even more.
The lipless mouth filled with sharp teeth is bracketed by tusks curving out and around until they almost touch in the front. The Invader has six arms in total, three on either side with the middle appendages being the largest and most functional. Those end in three-fingered hands with only one joint, black claws tipping the ends. The other four arms are smaller and thinner, ending in small pincers proportional in size. Everything but the head, hands, and feet is covered by a matte brown carapace-like armor with an emblem sewed onto the left part of the chest: a yellow pincer on a brown background.
Some of this I see, some my mind fills in from what I know to be there. I can’t see everything with the bright suns in the background, but I don’t have to.
The Invaders are a familiar threat by this point, seemingly ready to attack us ceaselessly. There’s no rhyme or reason to their attacks. No one knows why or when but they do seem to be after the meteorite glass. It’s not clear why they’re here but there may very well be something deeper going on. Prior to them it was the Zzlo. They were a familiar threat, to the Zmaj at least. Space pirates who make a living in the slave trade or scavenging. They were the ones who attacked our generation ship and caused the wreck. All of this crosses my mind in a split second.
The alien presence appears and Archion moves so fast if I blinked I’d have missed it. He has the thing in a headlock, dragging it into the crevasse with us and slicing its throat wide open with his knife.
I gasp at the swift violence but muffle the sound
with a hand over my mouth as I press farther back into the tight space while trying to avoid the warm fluid spraying in a wide arc from the Invader.
The Invader struggles in Archion’s arms to no avail, and it doesn’t take long for it to bleed out. As it goes limp in his arms, Archion drops it but it must have been faking. It lets out a staccato roar alerting the rest of its group before it stills.
No bueno. Archion barely spares us a glance before he steps out of the relative safety of the shelter. What is he doing? At least those things can only enter here one at a time.
Nora and I look at each other. She has her shock stick ready, but I lost mine in the grips of my panic. She slides closer to the entrance.
“No,” I whisper, “stay back.”
Her shoulders tense and silent she shakes her head. She slides forward. Straining my senses, I try to figure out what’s happening. If anything happens to Archion, we’re screwed. Nora ignores me, continuing to inch her way toward the opening.
I hear the distinct sound of Archion’s lochaber whistling through the air and then the roar of his opponents, quick footsteps, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh. It’s a confused cacophony of sounds, overlapping and layered, followed by a heavy silence.
Between one beat and the next, the sound is all just...gone. Followed by a horrible, unnerving stillness. What happened?
I can’t hear any small sounds beyond my own breathing and the pounding of my heart in my ears. Did Archion defeat the Invaders? Or are they going to rush inside and overtake us now that Archion is...
I jerk as a shadow blocks the sunlight once more. This time, it’s by a different figure altogether.
“We cannot linger. They are only the first line of eyes. Quickly—we must hurry past another group in that loud machine while we still can.”
I snap my open mouth closed and nod at the commanding words. Nora and I scramble out, blinking at the abrupt change of light. I keep moving, almost blindly, hoping I’m going in the right direction. I trip over something and stumble, squinting, trying to see, only to realize it is a body.
Dragon's Temptation: A SciFi Alien Romance (Red Planet Dragons of Tajss Book 15) Page 5