Alien Hope, page 18
I whirled, a growl building in my torn-up chest, to see a warrior on a large flying creature landing near our group. This was clearly a Deep Sky warrior – he looked like the others who’d attacked us on the Deep Sky Plains. He had the same violet-blue skin, the same night-sea blue hair. Though I could tell he had not been among that group. I had not seen him, or his mount, before.
“I am Gahn Errok. Abby and her son are now under my protection,” he said, walking towards us.
“They are under mine,” I hissed back, hating the way it felt like he was claiming them. I’d always been a sensible warrior. Not the jealous sort. I should have been rejoicing that Abby no longer had to live in isolation, away from other people. But instead, I was reeling. Terrified that now I’d lost our tiny little home, our secrecy, that I’d lose...
Them.
I have to see them.
Gahn Errok raked pulsing white sight stars up and down my form.
“You do not look like you’d be able to protect anyone in your current state. You can barely stand upright.”
He was right. And I detested that fact.
“Where is the one who fought you?” the Gahn asked viciously, his sight stars moving from me to scan the valley and sky around us. “I will fill him full of arrows and then send my entire army down upon him.”
I doubted even an army could have done much damage to the one I’d fought. I explained what had happened as quickly and as simply as I could. At the end of it, I said, “Gahn Errok. Allow me passage into your mountain to see Abby and Keir.”
His tail swished.
“Fine, fine. I’ll have to speak to Gahn Thaleo, too, I suppose. Let him know what has happened here tonight.” His sight stars returned to my wounds once more. “Will you make it walking like this? My hall is nearer than the new women’s settlement, but it will still be at least a day’s walk.”
A whole day without them.
I was about to say that I’d walk until my very last breath to be reunited with them, but Tok piped up from beside me.
“Perhaps I can go on ahead at a running speed. Send Thaleria’s shuttle back to retrieve him.”
Gahn Errok sliced his hand through the air, a gesture I’d seen Sea Sand men use that meant, “no.”
“Valeria has likely already landed. I will fly there and send her back myself. It will be faster that way. My braxilk is strong, but not strong enough to carry one of your kind, especially with me on its back as well.”
The braxilk had to be the large creature Gahn Errok used as a mount. It reminded me of a seabird, but much larger, with many legs, six eyes, and feathers that glinted like grey and blue knives.
“Fine,” I grunted. The speed at which I was reunited with Abby and Keir was far more important than any pride I could feel about reaching them on my own two feet. “But we will keep walking, anyway,” I added. “We can continue to shorten the distance and meet Thaleria on the way.”
“Kohka,” Tok growled. “Thaleria’s shuttle is fast. Faster than you can even conceive of. Pushing yourself while this injured to walk a few extra steps will not accomplish anything. It would be better to stay in one place and let her scanners pick up our life signs.”
I wanted to argue. To keep going. To feel like I was doing anything and everything I could to close the distance between my family and me. But Tok was right. I was still bleeding badly, and now that I’d stopped walking, the pain from my tail and ribs was becoming so great that breathing was difficult. It would be better to rest now and maintain some strength, even if every instinct inside me railed against the idea.
Tok and Grim helped ease me down into a seated position. I tensed as agony shot through my tail.
“My healers will tend to you when you arrive,” Gahn Errok said as he mounted his braxilk.
“Thank you,” I grunted.
“Thank my Gahnala,” he said. “She is the one who has made me so soft-hearted that I will expend my tribe’s resources on any male who limps, wiggles, or wails his way into my territory.”
The wailing, I assumed, referred to Keir. Probably the wiggling, too. Though the limping I had to claim full credit for.
“But then again,” the Gahn said, looking at me more thoughtfully than before, “perhaps I should be the one thanking you. When an enemy appeared in my territory, neither I nor my men were there to fight him. But you were there. And you did fight him.”
“I had no other choice. He came too near my family. And it is not as if I was victorious. He nearly killed me. The one you need to thank for protecting your territory is gone now.” I could still picture the strange other warrior vividly. Whirling white hair, red tail, black wings... “I should thank him, too.” He had saved my life, after all.
“Fine, then,” Gahn Errok said, impatience edging into his voice. “If he returns, we shall all sit around in a big, happy circle and thank each other endlessly until the sun rises.” He gave his mount a command, and it leaped up into the air. “But for now, let us both save our breath. I will send Valeria back at once. Try to survive until she gets here.”
With that, the Gahn turned his mount. They flew together until I could see nothing of them but the occasional flash of a silvery wing, like a feathered shard of a falling star.
It made me think of the star spear I’d seen earlier while holding Keir. That moment already felt like a lifetime ago. Abby had called it a shooting star. I looked upward but did not see another. There would be no more wishes tonight.
Only waiting.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Abby
“How did you even find me, anyway?”
We were aboard Valeria’s shuttle. It was just the three of us – Valeria, Stephanie, and me. I had to admit that it was nice to be around other women. I would have stayed my whole life in that cave with Kohka and Keir and been blissfully content. But having a wider support network, having other women around, was comforting. Especially now that I knew my son and I would be safe around them.
Now I just need to know that Kohka is alright...
But I couldn’t know that yet. So, I distracted myself with conversation.
“I mean, we kind of didn’t,” Valeria said from her seat beside me. She and I were currently sitting in the cockpit, in the two pilots’ seats. Stephanie was in one of the other seats further back. “We were out looking for you, but we didn’t see your life sign or anything. My scanners registered a huge surge of energy above the clearing where your cave was.”
“That must have been when the sky changed and the other alien appeared,” I said.
“Definitely,” Valeria agreed. “There was actually another similar surge not long after that a little further away, but I missed it at the time because I was in the cave talking to you.”
Oh, God.
“Do you think another one showed up?” I asked. My hold on Keir, who was sleeping in my arms, instinctively tightened.
“Not sure. Lemme check the scanners.” She glanced over at one of the many screens in the cockpit.
“Damn. I should have done this before. I was so concerned about getting you safely on the shuttle it slipped my mind.”
“What?” I asked.
“Checking for Kohka’s life sign.”
Without thinking, I tried to jump to my feet, wanting to race over to that screen myself. But I was buckled in.
“Hold on. It’s OK. Let me see,” Valeria said, peering at a dark screen with the occasional green dot. “Alright. I see three life signs near where that surge happened.”
Oh, no.
Kohka and two of those sky creatures? There had been a second surge of energy, after all...
He’ll never survive.
“I think it’s Grim, Tok, and Kohka.”
My heart leaped, my breath skittering out of my lungs.
“How do you know?” I asked anxiously, wanting any confirmation that Kohka was still alive.
“They appear to be all moving slowly together in a group. I mean, all I can see are dots, of course. But it doesn’t look like there’s fighting happening. And I don’t see any other life signs around that would indicate Grim and Tok’s movements on the ground. I’m certain that’s them. I can see Gahn Errok, too, flying towards them.”
“Thank you,” I breathed. I wasn’t even sure who I was thanking. Valeria for telling me the news. Fate for not taking Kohka from me yet.
“So that second surge?” Stephanie asked from behind us.
“Maybe it was the winged guy leaving the same way he arrived?” Valeria mused.
“Let’s hope,” I muttered darkly. If I never saw that monster again, it would still be too soon.
Even alongside the fear I felt about the thing that had come from the sky, I could feel pride, too. Kohka had survived. My strong, capable mate was still out there. And he was coming back to us.
“So, anyway, that’s what happened. Grim, Tok, and I came to check out the surge of energy. Stephanie was flying with Errok. When we came out of the shuttle, I heard the little guy crying. I thought it was an animal or something.” She shot me a weary grin. “Never in a million years would have guessed there was a human baby in there.”
“I know,” I said, shaking my head. “Trust me. I never thought I’d be having a baby in a cave on an alien planet.”
Valeria’s smile disappeared.
“I can’t even imagine what that was like. Being out there alone like that. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It was really hard,” I admitted, tears pricking in my eyes. “But I wasn’t alone. Not for the whole time, at least.”
Valerian nodded slowly.
“So, you and Kohka, then...”
“He’s my mate,” I said firmly. “The Kell didn’t call him yet. But that doesn’t matter. He’s my partner and Keir’s father.”
“Roger that.”
There was a moment of quiet as we all worked through our own thoughts.
The silence was broken by a beeping from one of the screens.
“It’s a call coming in from the Sea Sand ship,” Valeria said. “It’s probably Chapman.” She eyed me from the side. “Are you alright if we answer the call and give her a report? I know they’d all be relieved to know that you’re alright, and I’m going to have to fill them in on what happened eventually.”
I pursed my lips, then nodded. Whatever happened now, Gahn Errok had granted Keir and me safety. So, I felt a little more comfortable with the Sea Sand settlement knowing what was happening.
Valeria pushed a button, and Chapman’s face suddenly appeared on the screen.
“Valeria, have you-” She stopped short, her eyes widening. Obviously, there was a camera somewhere in here, sending her a feed. She could see us, see me, the same way we could see her.
“Abby!” she exclaimed. “Fuck! I’m so glad you’re alright. What the hell happened?!”
Valeria, Stephanie, and I all told the story in bits and pieces. A furrow appeared between Chapman’s orange eyebrows, getting deeper and deeper as we spoke.
“That’s a lot,” she muttered, rubbing tiredly at her forehead. “Why didn’t you just tell us you were pregnant?”
I let out a bitter laugh.
“Why don’t you ask your mate?” I shot back, feeling defensive. I’d made the best decisions I could based on what I knew. “I asked Fallo what would happen if another human male showed up, even a child, and he gave me some nasty answer about death and about how even children become men.”
Chapman sat up straighter, then sighed.
“Ugh, Fallo.” Chapman shook her head, little bits of red hair that had escaped from her bun floating around her face. “You couldn’t have posed that hypothetical to someone slightly more...”
“Sane?” Valeria piped up.
“I was going to say, ‘rational,’” Chapman replied. “I’m sorry,” she said to me. “I absolutely would not have let anything happen to your baby. I hope you know that now.”
“I knew you wouldn’t have,” I replied. “But I didn’t know if that would be enough. The Sea Sand Gahns have already done so much that goes against their ways, their culture, to be around us. I worried that having a human male in their midst would just be one step too far. I couldn’t risk my child’s life on the chance that the Gahns would accept him.”
“I understand,” Chapman said. “I mean, I don’t, because I’ve never gone through something like that. But I understand your reasoning.” Her freckled face softened into a smile. “You got those mama bear instincts.”
“You’re fucking right I do,” I said, smiling back.
Keir woke up at that moment, distracting me. I unzipped my jacket, pulled my tank top to the side, and he started nursing. Valeria, Chapman, and Stephanie talked a bit more while I fed Keir. I caught the occasional bit of their conversation – they were now talking more in-depth about the creature who’d come from the sky. Chapman said something about their Sea Sand scanners catching a life sign flying over the desert, but it had moved so fast it was barely a blip on their radar.
I started tuning them out, allowing myself to relax. I stared down at Keir. His little fist clenched and unclenched against my skin, and his dark eyes were open. He hadn’t had much hair when he was born, but it was starting to come in a tiny bit, now. The ship’s internal lights gleamed on the soft, brown down growing in fuzzily over his scalp, and I stroked it.
A few minutes later, Valeria ended the call with Chapman.
“We’re here. I’m going to land. Should be pretty smooth,” Valeria told me.
“Ready,” I said, making sure I had a good hold on Keir. He’d fallen asleep again, milk-drunk in my arms.
The landing, like Valeria had said, was pretty smooth. We all unbuckled and stood. Valeria and Stephanie each grabbed one of my packs, stuffed full of everything from the cave.
Valeria made sure the way was clear before urging us to go outside.
“That’s mostly unnecessary,” Stephanie assured me. “Gahn Errok’s men keep a pretty tight patrol around this mountain. This is where everyone lives.”
“Still,” Valeria said, “don’t want some predator sneaking up on us unannounced.”
“You’re right about that,” I said. “When we first arrived at the edge of the Deep Sky Plains, there was this horrible thing. It was like a giant twenty-foot-long python or something, but with two legs that made it look more like a salamander. It would have eaten me alive if it weren’t for Kohka.”
“Oh, yikes. Sounds like a pattarak,” Stephanie said. “I’ve never seen one myself, but they are one of the native predators around here Errok’s told me about.”
“Wanna call down a ride for us?” Valeria asked Stephanie. Based on Valeria’s wording, I wondered if Gahn Errok’s people had some kind of comms device that could call the ship. But the answer turned out to be a technology far simpler.
We had landed in front of the tallest mountain in this area, its magnificent blue body piercing up into the sky. Stephanie walked over to the side of the mountain’s base, her boots crunching on indigo pebbles and silver grass. She bent beside what appeared to be a hole in the mountain’s stone.
“This is Gahnala Stephanie! Please send down three riders on braxilk to fetch us.” Her gaze slid to me, then she added, still speaking into the darkness of the hole. “Three female riders, please! And make sure only women are in the hall when we land!”
She straightened, turning to me.
“That will echo up to the hall. There’s someone stationed on the other end to respond to calls from down here. It’s always a male warrior stationed there, though, and I’d rather Gahn Errok be here when the warriors learn about your son. They all listen to me, and I know it would be fine, but I think having just ladies around for now will be good.”
“I agree. Thank you,” I said. Now that I was actually here, at Gahn Errok’s mountain, my nerves were starting to kick in. Having just women around at first would help a lot.
“Priya will be so glad to see you,” Stephanie said, reaching over and squeezing my shoulder. “She’ll probably be up there waiting for us.”
“The others will be glad to see you, too,” Valeria said. “Tilly, Taylor, Nasrin, and Fiona are at the settlement site with Dalk and the other Sea Sand warriors. When you’re up for a visit, I’ll fly them out here.”
A moment later, three massive birds swooped down from a ledge overhead. They were striking creatures, like gigantic herons but with many legs, like an irkdu. All of them had feathers in shining shades of silver, grey, deep blue, and violet, the colours contrasting sharply in the dark night air.
I couldn’t see the riders until they landed, the wings of the birds stirring up dust and sending little blue pebbles skittering across the ground.
All three of them dismounted and approached us. They raised their tails to Stephanie, a sign of deep respect for their Gahnala, but she waved the gesture away, blushing.
“This is Abby,” Stephanie said. She is the woman we’ve been looking for. She recently gave birth to her child.”
The sight stars of the women all pulsed in surprise and settled on Keir. All three had sight stars the same colour – a pearlescent white. The oldest of the three women had a shaved head, and they were dressed differently from women of the Sea Sands. Instead of long peet grass tunics that were worn like short dresses, these women wore trousers made of some soft-looking hide. They wore vests, also made from some kind of leather or hide, bound across their chests with crisscrossing leather straps. There was a gap between the parts of the vests, revealing a strip of purple-blue skin from collarbone to navel, but because none of them had breasts (apparently none of them being pregnant or nursing right now) the chest area on display was flat and muscled.
“I trust these three women with my life, Abby,” Stephanie said. “I think we can tell them now.”
I looked from Stephanie to the three Deep Sky women. There was kindness, I decided, in the expressions of all three of them.
“I am Tilka,” said the older woman with the shaved head.
“She’s Gahn Errok and Lerokan’s aunt,” Stephanie added. “You don’t even know how much she helped me settle in when I first got here.”
