by R. D. Brady
The breeding facility. We went into the breeding facility. His memories were fuzzy, but he thought they had gotten most of the women and children out. He and Petra, though, they’d gone off to check something out. He frowned. What was it?
A fog seemed to have drifted over his memories. He forced his way through it, picturing himself and Petra walking up the stairs of the old stone building from the Before. The Naku had modified it to create dormitories and medical suites.
We weren’t going to one of the dormitories. We were heading to the medical suite. He struggled through a darkness that seemed to be deepening around his thoughts, rather than lightening. The children. They’d been different than the others in the facility. Two had been blind, one had only half an arm.
Gasira.
The Unwelcome had appeared. He’d gotten Gasira into the small hole, yelled for Petra to take her. Then he’d fought the Unwelcome. He’d won.
He frowned. Then what?
The back wall had disappeared in a blast. Seven Unwelcome had vaulted through. He’d fought, but there’d been too many. Even with his abilities, he’d been overpowered. Then he remembered the blossom of pain across the back of his skull before everything went black.
Am I dead?
The Unwelcome did not let the Cursed live. When they first arrived on this planet in their ship, children between the ages of seven and twelve had been their primary target. They were immediately killed if discovered. Now, six years later, it was this same group, ages thirteen through eighteen, who were able to fight the Unwelcome. The group included Miles, his brother, and some of his closest friends. And for some reason, it also included his adopted mother, Lyla, even though she was ten years older than the far end of the age range. Which meant, in all likelihood, he was dead.
But even as he thought it, it didn’t feel right. If he were dead, his mother and his sister, Kayla, would be here. Wherever he was, it wasn’t the afterlife.
I am not dead.
The words reverberated through his mind. He pictured Maisy, Riley, Lyla, Arthur, and Petra. They would be worried about him. They would fight for him, no matter the cost. He would do no less for them.
I need to know where I am.
He struggled against the fog. It was dense, almost sentient, as if it was trying to keep him from him waking.
No.
He pushed, keeping Riley, Lyla, Maisy, Arthur, and Petra in his mind.
No. You will not keep me from them.
His eyes burst open.
His body jolted. He bobbed upward. What the—
He was in some sort of fluid in a tall glass cylinder. It was clear, like water, but thicker, like a gel. It supported him upright. He could move a few inches but no more than that.
His heart started to pound as he detected movement beyond the glass. He squinted, wondering if the glass or fluid was distorting what he was seeing.
The figure moved closer. It wasn’t the glass or fluid distorting his view.
It was the creature heading toward him that was distorted.
He’d seen Naku at the facility, but this one had so many more folds in his skin than the others. The Naku were only four feet tall, with light-gray skin. Their arms and legs were extremely thin, almost to the point of being skeletal. This one looked like a walking skeleton. His skin was all but hanging from his bones. And it looked parchment thin. Even so, it was folded over itself again and again, looking like a horrible disease. The Naku was stooped, as if holding its disproportionately large head upright was too much for its degraded body.
Yet even with its fragile and weak appearance, Miles could sense the power of this creature. If this wasn’t their leader, he was certainly high up in the chain of command.
It moved close to Miles’s chamber. Its face peered up at him. Then the creature rose into the air. At first Miles thought he’d levitated, but then he saw the machine that supported the creature and lifted him high.
The creature rose until it was eye level with Miles.
Miles reared back as it moved its face closer to him. Almost immediately, he felt a pressure in his head.
Miles winced as the pressure grew. He shook his head. No. He pictured himself shoving the pain from his mind. And with a pop, it dissolved and was gone.
The creature’s eyes flared for a moment. It waved its hand. Its long bony fingers fluttered in the air near Miles’s face.
For the first time, he noticed the two other Naku in the room beyond the creature. One hurried over to Miles and pressed buttons along the bottom of Miles’s capsule.
Miles blinked, his eyelids feeling heavy again. No, I don’t want to go back into the dark. He fought it, but he knew he would lose.
The Naku directly in front of him turned his head. Miles followed its gaze, noticing for the first time the other capsule suspended only twenty feet away. His eyes tried to close, but he forced them open, focusing on the other capsule. There was someone in that one as well.
They were seven feet tall and blue. He squinted, even as the darkness tried to pull him back in. He needed to see first. It was a small victory.
And he needed a small victory. He studied the Unwelcome, his gaze on the other captive’s face.
I know you. He closed his eyes, picturing another Unwelcome before the darkness took him again.
Arthur, I’ve found your sister.
4
Lyla had moved rooms. Emma and Edna had spearheaded the cleaning crew. They’d insisted Lyla take one of the bedrooms on the third floor. They had cleaned it, even put fresh flowers in a vase in it. Lyla didn’t have the heart to tell them that she didn’t care about a room. She didn’t care about eating. She didn’t care about sleeping. All she cared about was Miles.
The ceiling of the bedroom Lyla shared with Riley, Maisy, Iris, and Arthur was covered in flying angels. Small cherubim sitting on clouds, done in a Renaissance style. Lyla had examined each individual angel, knowing sleep would never arrive. She stared at one angel sitting on a cloud, a smile across its face. What were angels? Were they God’s messengers? Or were they visitors from another planet? Had humans been visited by others over time, and instead of recognizing them for who they were, did they give them heavenly origins? Was the alternative that they were beings from another planet, too frightening to think about?
She knew now that the Naku had been here before. That the Unwelcome had been taken from here. She felt the anger at that action, but she could not seem to work past her worry for Miles. She knew she needed to work past it. But for the first time in her life, she could not shove her feelings aside.
She knew a large part of the reason for that was she hadn’t slept since Miles had been taken, not really. She’d barely eaten. She knew she needed to do both, but right now she just stared at the ceiling, every part of her body exhausted, but sleep would not come.
The bed she lay on was soft, which might be part of the problem. But Maisy and Iris had sighed with happiness when they first crawled into it. Now Maisy was curled into Lyla’s side, and Iris was curled into Maisy’s. Both were breathing softly, lost in what Lyla hoped were happy dreams.
Arthur lay on an old mattress on the floor, at the base of the bed. Once again, he had placed himself closest to the door. The first obstacle anyone who tried to harm his family would have to pass. Riley was passed out in the corner on a sofa. He’d been working himself so hard each day. Lyla wasn’t surprised by the work he’d put in, but she was worried. She knew there was a slow burn rising inside of him. He was keeping it under control with all the work he was doing, but it was only a matter of time before that fire turned to a full-fledged explosion.
Lyla was the opposite of an explosion, at least tonight. Tonight she was drowning in the thoughts swirling through her mind. She imagined a million different things she could have done at the breeding facility that would have kept Miles from being taken.
Then she imagined all the things that could be happening to him. Arthur’s descriptions of his treatment at the hands
of the Naku since he was a child morphed into a kaleidoscope of the torturous activities Thor had described, all aimed at Miles.
She put a hand to her mouth, taking a deep breath to try and calm the terror running through her. Miles, my Miles.
Carefully, she climbed from underneath the blanket. Maisy shifted toward the center of the bed. Lyla tucked the blankets around her and Iris before grabbing her boots. She slipped from the room, not putting her boots on until she reached the top of the stairs.
Rory appeared on the landing below, heading toward her. His face flashed surprise at seeing Lyla. “Hey, everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Lyla focused on tying her shoes, keeping her voice even. “Just needed some air. You just getting off your shift?”
Phoenixes were on rotating shifts to guard the Gatsby. Riley had established the schedule.
“Yeah. Everything’s quiet, except a few of the babies who were restless.”
Lyla nodded. “Yeah. Well, have a good sleep.”
“Yeah, you too.”
Lyla headed down the stairs, feeling Rory’s eyes on her. She knew everyone was worried about her. They knew what her kids meant to her. And Miles, he meant a great deal to almost everyone in camp.
Lyla opened the door and nearly ran into Thor’s sister. Xe backed up quickly, her son clutched to her chest. Another woman with her backed up as well, her child also in her arms.
“Sorry.” Lyla scooted around them.
“Lyla.” Xe hurried to catch up with her.
Lyla closed her eyes. She just wanted a few minutes on her own. She was barely holding it together. But she pulled her emotions back, turning to face Xe. She even managed a small smile. “How are you doing, Xe?”
“We’re good. Everyone’s been very kind.”
Lyla nodded. “They’re good people.”
“They are.” Xe fell silent.
“You should get him inside.” Lyla nodded toward Xe’s son, Little Thor. His eyes were closed, and he was in that boneless sleep that kids somehow managed.
“I will. I just … I’ve been meaning to speak with you.” Xe bit her lip. “I, um, your son, Miles. He saved Thor’s life.” Xe’s eyes shone in the dark. “He didn’t know him. He didn’t have any reason to help him, none of you did. But you all came and freed us. And Miles, if it weren’t for him, I would have lost my son.”
Xe took a shuddering breath. “If I can help in any way to get Miles back, any way at all, one mother to another, I will do it. Just tell me what you need.”
The tears Lyla had been swallowing down since the facility threatened to bubble up. She placed a hand on Little Thor’s back. “We don’t have any plan. I don’t know if we’ll—” She swallowed down the words, taking a deep breath. “Thank you.”
Xe nodded, heading back into the house. Lyla started for the back of the house. She felt the eyes of the Phoenixes on guard on her. She kept her back straight as she rounded the house, spying the stable. She crossed the large open space and slipped inside the dark building.
The veerfinah they had taken from the facility sat silently in the dim space. The moonlight didn’t do much to brighten it. Lyla felt along the walls, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Then she stepped to the veerfinah, running a hand over the side of the cold metal. She could just take it, fly to the mothership and fight her way through until she found him. She’d watched Arthur flying one, and she was pretty sure she could manage it.
Finding Miles would be the difficult part, but she would simply kill everyone in front of her until she found him. She would—
“Lyla.”
She closed her eyes, her shoulders drooping. She should have known. She turned. “Why are you up, Arthur?”
“Because you are.” He stepped forward, swallowing up the space between them. He was so large, and yet she always felt safe in his presence. “You were thinking of taking the veerfinah, weren’t you?”
“He’s up there, Arthur, and he’s in trouble.”
“If you do that, you’ll be killed. You won’t be able to save him.”
“Then it’s no different than what I’m accomplishing right now.”
“But you’d be dead.”
She shook her head, not able to explain what she was feeling. She was drowning. Every day she felt like she couldn’t breathe, like she was barely going to make it. The idea of Miles up there, under their control, in their labs—it gutted her. “Miles has always been my sensitive one. He is sweet and kind. And what they are doing to him—”
She turned her back on Arthur, breathing deeply. She kept flashing on her time in the research building. It had been torture.
“What can I do?”
Lyla barked out a bitter laugh. “Do? Nothing. You can’t do anything. Xe can’t do anything. I can’t do anything.” She stared up at the veerfinah.
The ship could take her right to the mothership. In less than an hour, she could be docking in one of the loading bays and working her way through the ship to find Miles. It was suicidal. It was crazy.
And it was the only thing she had left in front of her.
She strode toward the ramp. Her hand reached for the control panel next to the bay door. Arthur’s hand engulfed hers. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting him back.” She pushed Arthur’s hand away.
He stepped in front of her. “Lyla, think this through. If you go up there, even if you manage to get Miles, how are you going to get him back here? He might not be in any shape to move. Are you going to be able to fight everyone and also carry him?”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“You’ll get yourself killed.”
She took a step back, glaring up at him. “Then I guess I’ll get myself killed.”
Arthur blanched. But then his expression shifted to one of anger. “And what do I tell Maisy? Riley? Do I tell them that you went off knowing that you were going to get yourself killed, but you did it anyway?”
“Tell them I did it to save Miles and that I would do the same for them.”
“But you won’t be here to do the same for them. You’ll be dead. And we’ll be no closer to getting Miles off of that ship. In fact, you’ll ruin any chance of us getting him off that ship if you take the veerfinah with you. When we save Miles, we are going to need this ship, and we are going to need everyone, including you. But if you run off now, if you try to do this on your own, you’ll ruin any chance of getting to him. They’ll put every guard around him. They’ll lock him so far away we’ll never be able to get to him.”
“It’s Miles! You can’t expect me to sit here and not do anything. I can’t just sit here.”
Arthur’s expression softened. “You’re not just sitting here. You’re getting the Gatsby set up for everyone that is going to live their lives here, including Miles. Tomorrow, we’ll find out what Montel, Max, and Angela have discovered. Until then, we need to prepare. We need to find a way to get him back that doesn’t get everyone who goes to rescue him killed.”
Lyla closed her eyes. The tears that she had been holding back since Miles had been taken pressed against the back of her eyes until she couldn’t stop them from rolling down her cheeks. “It’s Miles. It’s my Miles. He’ll never be the same after this.”
Arthur reached for her. She didn’t fight him as he pulled her into his arms. “No, he won’t be the same. None of us will be the same after all of this. But we will be here to help him through it. All of us will help him through it.”
Tears rained onto Arthur’s shirt. Her limbs felt like they were weighed down by sandbags. “I’m so tired, Arthur. I’m just so tired.”
He cupped the back of her head, holding her to his chest. “I know you are. So sleep. I’ll take care of you.”
It was as if his words were magic. Her legs collapsed. but Arthur swept her up before she could sink to the floor, snuggling her into his chest. He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Sleep, Lyla. I won’t let anything happen to you. Sleep.”
Lyla closed her eyes, ex
haustion overwhelming her and sleep finally claiming her.
5
The veerfinah touched down with barely a bump. Naku Liaison Alan Williams removed his safety straps and stood up, smoothing his rich red velvet robes that marked him as the Naku liaison. His robes were new, and he was in awe of them.
For years, he had worn the yellow robes of the McGoverns. He had taken pride in them. But the pride he felt in these new robes was well beyond anything he had felt before. The first time Alan had heard the stories of the McGoverns, he had been starving. He had been with a small group for the last six months.
But they had hit hard times, especially after a series of earthquakes had destroyed the small homes that they had been able to scrounge from scrap metal. Food had been scarce, and medicine even scarcer. His father had died from a broken leg. Alan wasn’t sure what exactly happened. They thought they had set it, but just a week later, he was gone.
Then Alan had seen the yellow robes in the forest. At first, he hadn’t known what to make of them, thinking perhaps it was an animal, but he could not imagine what animal would have been that color. He had slowly followed the yellow robes to see who they were and what they were up to. All the while he had marveled at the fact that the robes were clean. He had not seen anyone with clean clothes in what felt like forever. He had thought he was being quiet, thought he had been undetected, but he should have known better. The guardians of the gods were much more skilled than poor humans.
He had continued through the woods, noting that one of the yellow robes had disappeared. He hadn’t even noticed him slip away. And then he heard this strong footfall behind him. He had whirled around only to come face-to-face with an Unwelcome. The creature was nine feet tall. He was wider than any being Alan had ever seen. And looking into his face, all Alan saw was his own reflection in the creature’s helmet. He had dropped to his knees, knowing that he was finally going to die.
And part of him felt relief at the idea.
But then one of the yellow figures appeared. He gently pushed away the creature’s weapon and stepped in front of Alan. Alan had kept his gaze on the ground, not daring to look up.