by J. J. Green
She risked another peek over the rocks. The aliens remained in the same position. What could they be waiting for? No entrances to their habitation stood nearby except the one where she’d exited, and she couldn’t see any roads or buildings.
Once more, the freezing breeze got the better of her, and she sank into the lee of the rocks.
The wind soughed and whined as it rushed past. Parthenia jammed her frozen fingers into her armpits and tried to listen beyond its noise. She looked up at the three moons and unfamiliar starscape. How far was she from Ithiya now? She had no idea.
The gilded prison that had once been her home seemed distant and dreamlike. Despite the presence of her demonic father, she’d had many happy times there, playing with her brothers and sisters and enjoying the quiet, comforting love of their mother, which persisted throughout Father’s moods and tirades.
She recalled the warm, verdant garden that surrounded the mansion, full of fruits and flowers. Sometimes she’d simply sat with Mother in the sun, not speaking, just soaking up the pleasant warmth. She could almost feel the sun’s warmth right now, and the drowsiness that came with it. It felt wonderful. She wanted to slip into sleep, warm and secure.
Whoomph!
The noise jerked her awake, and she felt a tremor run through the ground.
Why did she feel so hot when before she’d been so cold?
And what had made that noise?
Fighting exhaustion, she rose to her feet again and looked out.
Something was there that hadn’t been there before. Something huge.
Its shape reminded her of seashells that Father had once brought home, curved on one side and flat on the other, but this thing was many times larger. The tallest part stood thirty times higher than a Regian, and it was the same width. The flat section rested on the ground, and a vertical surface rose from the base to the top.
She was in no doubt the thing had landed, causing the sound and the vibration, and the size and appearance of the object would ordinarily have led her to conclude it was some kind of airplane or starship, except the thing was alive.
The tips at the edges of its body were moving, rippling like the fins of a flat fish, and the vertical surface at what seemed to be its front end looked soft, like skin.
The Regians who had been waiting walked toward the creature. As they got near, an opening appeared, drawing back its edges like curtains or two lips around a mouth.
Parthenia watched and waited. The Regians went inside.
The opening was a pitch black hole, giving no clue as to what was happening in there.
Time passed, though she didn’t know how much. It could have been seconds or minutes. All she knew was she had to see what was happening, what this thing was that had arrived. She was at the end of her endurance and it was her only hope of survival.
Finally, the Regians emerged.
And between the five walked two men!
She squinted to make out their faces. She didn’t recognize either of them, which probably meant they were Mezban’s soldiers. And if they were Mezban’s troops, that seemed to mean the thing they’d arrived in had brought them there from the Bathsheba!
An animal that flew through space? She’d vaguely heard of such creatures, but none the size of a starship, and none which also carried passengers. But she didn’t have the luxury of contemplating the revelation right now.
Excitement coursed through her. If she saw where the men were taken, that might tell her where her family and the Black Dogs were being held too.
The Regians poked the men with their pincers to direct them as they’d poked her, though she noticed they weren’t wearing bags over their heads as she had. What that meant, she didn’t know.
The group walked around the huge flying creature and disappeared.
Parthenia started out from her hiding place, somewhat fearful of the living starship perceiving her and raising an alarm, but it didn’t appear to react as she approached it. She followed the same path as the aliens and their captives, around the right-hand ‘fin’ or ‘wing’. As soon as she rounded the tip, she saw the group again.
The Regians were poking the men vigorously, urging them forward, but they were resisting. Suddenly, one of the aliens gave a man a particularly hard shove, and he dropped down out of sight. A beat later the same thing happened to the other man.
The soldiers had fallen so quickly, it was clear they’d been pushed into holes in the ground. Was that what had happened to her family?
She needed to get closer to the holes and find out, but the Regians were returning!
Parthenia spun around, looking for a place to hide.
There was nothing.
No group of boulders in this area was large enough to hide her. Her only chance was to return the way she’d come.
But the aliens had already spotted her. They were loping in her direction, covering the ground fast on their lengthy limbs.
She ran.
Weighing much less than her usual weight, running should have been easy, but she had no energy left. Her legs moved as if trying to wade through treacle.
Then she fell.
A second later, a Regian loomed over her.
“No!” she yelled. “Don’t take me back there! I won’t go. I want to see my family. I want to be with them!”
She scrabbled backward on all fours, trying but failing to rise.
A hole opened in the front of the alien’s carapace, and liquid spurted out.
Acid splashed across her exposed skin.
She shrieked in agony.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Carina lay on her side, unable to move, unable to think.
Atoi was gone.
Her friend was as good as dead, and her last conscious moments had been filled with terror, knowing her sickening fate.
Right now, somewhere out there among the parasitized corpses—some dead and some still living—lay the person she’d known since she’d first boarded the Duchess as a sixteen-year-old street rat. They’d trained, fought, and partied together, and though neither of them had ever put it into words, they’d liked and trusted each other.
After Atoi had landed in the cell next door, the woman had quickly taken in and understood the situation. Carina hadn’t had to do much explaining: it didn’t take a genius to figure out what the Regians intended to do to them.
Except maybe not the mages.
Chandu had been inoculated with the fungal spores as soon as he’d arrived. She was confident that was what the aliens had sprayed into the man’s face. As well as several insects that lay eggs in hosts’ bodies as part of their life cycle, she’d also come across individual creatures who behaved as if in a trance, wandering around in the open aimlessly, or climbing to the tops of plants and remaining exposed, as if inviting a predator to eat them.
The insects that exhibited this strange behavior all had one thing in common: a tiny protuberance on their heads like a small mushroom. They’d clearly been infested by a fungus that affected their actions. When she’d seen the puff of spores from the fungal body that Chandu crushed among the corpses, she’d understood the reason for the lack of animation in the people still alive. The Regian squirted something up Chandu’s nose and into his mouth, confirming her conclusion.
The spores had quickly infiltrated the man’s brain and affected his motor functions. She only hoped—nasty though Chandu was—that his mind was not awake and functioning normally trapped in an unresponsive body.
But the Regians hadn’t done the same thing to the mages, yet. She supposed the aliens were delaying in the hope she and her siblings might be more useful to them than only fresh meat.
The same had not been true for Atoi. The accusation she’d thrown at Carina aboard the Duchess as the Peregrine towed it back to the colony ship had proven true. The mages were to be spared, for now, but the mercs were not to be granted the same clemency.
It would have been better for her friend if they had activated the self-destruc
t, and it was a sign of their friendship that she had not.
Atoi had paid the price.
“Yeah, it’s me,” she’d answered Carina. “That you, Car? What the freaking stars is going on in here?”
Before Carina answered, she’d added, “Or maybe I don’t want to know. Fuck. What happened to Chandu? I saw them bring him here ahead of me.”
She replied quietly, “He’s out there.”
Atoi was silent.
Carina could hear her friend’s breaths, heavy and speeding up, in the stillness.
“Guess they’ll be coming for me soon,” she said.
Carina couldn’t answer her.
“You know what I said, on the Duchess?” she asked, “about you mages and us mercs?”
“Uh huh.”
“I didn’t mean it. I want you to forget about it.”
“But you were—”
“Forget it, okay!?”
“Okay,” Carina replied, though she knew she never would.
She heard Atoi stand up and grip the cage wires.
“And keep working out, right? You’re weak. You can be stronger, and you need to be to protect those brats.”
“You know, the Regians came for Chandu faster than this. Maybe—”
Four aliens appeared from the shadows and strode toward Atoi’s cell.
Her friend muttered expletives, then she said, “Car, promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Make it worth it. Live a good life. A long life, for me.”
The sobs that were choking Carina stole her reply.
The Regians opened Atoi’s cell door.
She’d put up a helluva fight, breaking two of the aliens’ legs and nearly making it to the exit before they caught her and managed to subdue her.
And the result had been the same. Atoi lay somewhere out there, not yet dead but not quite living, and Carina would never be the same again.
Since then, more Black Dogs had been arriving, but the aliens seemed to be leaving them alone for now. The men and women occupied most of the cells around the perimeter of the hatching chamber. Carina had broken the news about Atoi and Chandu. The mercs had been distressed and saddened by hearing the fate of their captain, but Chandu’s death went unremarked.
Even if she had elixir, a Heal Cast wouldn’t fix what had happened to her friend. It couldn’t drive the spores out from her body any more than it could remove a knife from her stomach, and spores were far too small to Transport.
At first, she and the mercs had discussed escape strategies, but no one had come up with anything concrete. Now, the noise in the place was minimal. Each of them kept their thoughts to themselves, though she could hear murmurings that could be prayers.
She heard the impact on the floor of a new person arriving, but the noise barely penetrated her misery.
There was a silence as the new arrival took in the shocking sight before them, but then a voice called out, “Carina, are you here?”
Bryce.
She sat up. “I’m here.”
She could just see him, looking out from a cell a few meters away.
“And the kids?”
“We’re here, too,” Ferne replied. “Though we don’t know where Parthenia is.”
“Are you all okay?”
“Yeah,” Oriana replied sadly. “We’re fine.”
“Atoi’s dead,” said Carina. “The Regians took her…out there.”
“Shit. I’m sorry. I know you and she were friends.”
Carina couldn’t respond.
“There has to be a way out of this,” Bryce said.
“I’m all ears,” one of the mercs growled.
“We haven’t any elixir,” said Oriana. “If we had just a little, a mouthful, maybe we could do something.”
“But we don’t,” said Ferne, “so there’s no point wishing.”
Another thunk!
Another awful silence, each person in the room knowing what the new person was going through.
Carina watched the place the Regians had come from before. The cells were nearly full. How long would the aliens wait before they returned to select the next host?
In some ways, it might be better to be chosen soon, if the only alternative was to sit and see what would become of you. If the Regians decided the mages were of no use to them, they would probably be the last to be chosen. Carina wasn’t sure they were better off.
Someone cleared their throat—a deep, male cough.
“Carina Lin, are you in here?”
She sighed. “Yes, Jace. I’m here.”
“Good. And the rest of your family?”
“We’re missing Parthenia,” Ferne replied.
“Ah, that’s unfortunate.”
“Is it?” Carina asked. “I was hoping she was in a better place than this.”
“Yes, it is. It means we’ll have to find her.”
“I’d love to find her, but I’ve no idea how.”
A pause.
“Is this place under surveillance by the aliens?” Jace asked.
“I don’t think so,” Carina replied. “Why?”
“I have something for you, for us, but I’m not sure if it’s safe to talk about it.”
“Something for me?” She stood up and peered across the room, trying to see the older mage.
His large figure was easy to spot.
“Yes, something very useful, though not much of it.”
“Something…” Carina’s legs became weak, and she grasped the wires for support. “You’re kidding me!”
“I’m not joking. Er…perhaps I shouldn’t say any more, now we understand each other.”
The Regians didn’t know Jace was a mage. Lomang and Mezban hadn’t told them because they hadn’t known! And because none of the mercs had been wearing armor, he’d been mistaken for one of them. After the Duchess was seized, the Black Dogs’ weapons had been collected, but no one had seen any reason to take away a soldier’s canteen.
Jace was carrying elixir.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The sound of the cell doors unlocking was like the ratchet of a hundred insect legs rubbing together on a still night.
If their supply of elixir had been plentiful, they might have Transported all the mercs out of the hatching chamber, but they didn’t. And even if they did, where should the mercs go? No one knew of a safe place on the Regians’ planet.
The Unlock Cast required little effort and Jace could accomplish it with only one mouthful of the precious fluid.
Now they were free, the Black Dogs moved into action. One ran into his neighbor’s cell and called for another’s help. The three men quickly formed a tower in the hole that led to the surface, and the topmost man looked out.
Immediately, he dropped to the floor and said in a loud whisper, “Regians, coming this way.”
Carina swore. “Quick, back in your cells, everyone. If they come in here, I’ll Split them.”
But the aliens didn’t enter the chamber. Instead, new victims dropped into empty cells—two of Mezban’s soldiers.
What their arrival meant was unclear, but a quick decision had to be made. As the men were boggling at the sight of the dead and dying human hosts, one of the mercs sped over to them and demanded to know where their loyalty lay. Would they forsake Mezban and come over to the mercenary band?
Unsurprisingly, the soldiers agreed, giving loud assurances of their new fealty.
“Let’s go!” said Carina, as loudly as she dared.
As she ran to reunite with Bryce and gather her brothers and sisters, the Black Dogs began to form towers as the original three had.
The first men and women climbed up and out.
Carina quickly stepped through the dreadful blanket of human hosts in the center of the chamber. When she reached Atoi, she stopped. Her friend’s eyes were open, though unfocused, and her chest slowly rose and fell. The swollen egg case covered more than half of the woman’s torso. Carina saw movement through the tra
nslucent shell—something wriggling.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, kneeling down.
Her heart and throat aching like they were about to burst, she gently took her friend’s head in both hands, and then twisted it sharply. A crack of breaking bone sounded, and Atoi’s neck hung loose.
The rising and falling of her chest stopped, and her eyes closed.
For a moment, Carina couldn’t see. Her tears dripped onto her old friend’s face. “Goodbye,” she murmured. “Thanks for all you did, all you were.”
Then a scream from outside pierced the air. The person’s voice was alarmingly familiar.
“That’s Parthenia!” Carina yelled. She ran out from the hosts and over to Jace, grabbing the elixir from him before speeding on to the nearest tower of mercs.
“Help me up!” she shouted, pushing the canteen down her shirt.
The waiting mercs parted before her, and the man at the bottom formed a stirrup with his hands. She put her foot on it, he boosted her upward, and the next man grabbed her wrists, lifting her higher. In another second she was pulling herself out of the hole and onto the cold, dusty surface of the Regian planet.
Blinking in the bright moonlight, she swiveled, scanning the landscape. The first thing she saw was the slope of a small, dark hill—except it wasn’t a hill, unless hills moved. The lower reaches of the slope were undulating. She seemed to be looking at a living creature.
Then she saw the Regians. Five of them were gathered around something on the ground.
Another scream rent the atmosphere.
Carina’s hands shook as she pulled the canteen out from her shirt and unscrewed the lid. She steadied her breath, took a drink, and closed her eyes. Achieving the calmness of mind required to Cast was hard, but failing wasn’t an option in the circumstances.
She opened her eyes. The five Regians briefly shrieked before they were torn in two and their bodies evaporated into the ether. As she raced to her sister, she hoped the aliens’ death throes hadn’t been heard by others of their kind.
Parthenia was a ball of grime and burned flesh, curled up on her side on the ground.