Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

HAVOK

I vekking don’t know how I’ll get out of here. These tunnels go on indefinitely without any clue as to how this stronghold is laid out. Sartogs would get lost down here, if Grudan had the vermin.

For a brief moment, I swear I hear my sholani calling to me, asking where I am.

I’ll be late for Christmas, my sweet Jade.

As long as you come home to me. That’s what she would say.

She’s counting on me to return for Christmas, a holiday I still don’t thoroughly understand, but it holds great meaning to her, and that’s what will push me until I hold her in my arms once more.

As I turn down the next corridor, stopping to listen for any sign of grud soldiers, that question that’s been niggling at me surfaces. Why did we put a tree in our home when we have dozens outside our home? That makes as much sense to me as why the Grud live underground when the world above is full of fresh air, plenty of clean water and healthy game. Even Grudan’s orbit provides them short days and long nights, plenty of darkness, if that’s their reason for retreating to the dank passages below.

Heavy footsteps approach. The walls radiate the same yellow glow as a grud’s eyes, providing barely enough light for me to navigate the passages without falling off a ledge or into a pit. I throw myself flush against a wall, waiting for the grud to pass.

“Serkanni vok griz!” a grud yells.

“Chi.”

“Jou.”

“Vertu.”

Many voices ring out, one after the next. A squad, searching for me. No doubt, they’ve found the dead guard in my cell.

My horns pitch forward and my claws extend, my only weapons. I’m ready and willing to fight, to kill anyone who tries to stop me.

The ground shakes. The sound of running soldiers quickly fades. They’re not running toward me, but in the opposite direction. They could be heading above ground.

Quietly, I enter the main tunnel as I follow the sound of the soldiers ahead.

The ground shakes again, rock and dirt raining down all around me. There’s no mistaking the effect of explosives. A new thread of hope rises in me. My crew is above ground and they’re fighting to reach me.

That doesn’t mean I can wait around for them to find me. The crew of The Relentless is as loyal and talented as any group of Zyanthan warriors, but they’re vastly outnumbered.

I break into a jog, no longer concerned with a stealth approach. If I let the grud squad get too far ahead, I’ll lose my best chance of finding the path topside.

Another blast shakes the tunnels and I stumble. The echo of the soldiers suddenly stops. Three tunnels lay before me. I quickly charge down the middle tunnel, though I’ m not sure it’s where I heard the echoes. I have no time for indecision. Any of those explosions could bring down these tunnels.

The explosions are occurring every three minutes, which leads me to believe they’re using timed charges. My crew knows basics about charges, nothing complicated like timing sequences. Explosives are my specialty, not theirs.

That’s not my crew up there.

If the Coalition is attacking, then I’m vekked. They’ll destroy every grud ship topside and I’ll be trapped on Grudan, likely buried alive down here.

As I emerge from the middle branch, I stop short as three grud face me, short swords drawn. I could turn back, but I need to get above, not hide deeper underground.

Another explosion rocks the cavern, giving me the distraction I need. I charge at the left-most grud. He swings his sword, which I duck as I kick the sword from the second grud while raking my claws down the first one’s face. Vekk, I’d aimed for his throat and missed.

The first grud recovers quickly with another swing while the second one stumbles to his feet and falters. I narrowly avoid being sliced in two by a sword.

In my peripheral vision, I see horns rise from the third grud. But grud don’t have horns, I reflect as I slam my fist into the second grud’s face and grab his sword. I raise the sword high against the third grud, but before I can bring it down on his head, he throws two knives, both sail past me and land in the first grud’s throat, beneath his chin. A vulnerable spot I didn’t know about. In seconds, the grud falls to the ground, dead.

“I thought you could use the help,” the third grud says, in Zyanthan .

Those horns are zyanthan, but the male’s skin is green, not blue.

“It’s me, Havok. Jaizon.”

He plucks off a scale, a fake scale, and tosses it aside, showing me a hint of warrior tattoos beneath green paint. Then he tears off a very detailed mask that’s already ripped down the center where his horns broke through.

“The disguise only had to last me long enough to get down here and find you. But I’ve never been good at keeping my horns flat against my head for long.”

I’m overjoyed to see any of my brethren, but slightly surprised it’s Jaizon. “You’re not who I expected to see.”

“You mean instead of your crew?”

“You are the most wanted male in all the Coalition territory, Jaizon,” I say as I relieve the dead grud of their weapons and Jaizon strips off the grud bodysuit with it’s too-real looking scales.

“I’m the only warrior who knows the territory well enough to reach you.”

Fair enough. “Your ship?”

“Hidden five miles past the grud airfield. Which is presently in disarray.”

“Camouflage and charges. You should consider joining our crew.”

“You don’t want two Kaitels aboard one ship. Torin and I would rip one another apart.”

“Ah, but that would make missions rather interesting.”

“I’m content where I am on Affinia. Never far from my sholani and youngling for more than a few hours.”

His words slice through the heaviness in my heart at having disappointed Jade yet again. “I promised my sholani I would return by Christmas. I failed.”

Jaizon slaps me on my back and simultaneously points me to another tunnel, nearly impossible to see in the low light. He knows precisely where he’s going.

“A few facts you must be aware of, eeshone.”

My horns rise at being called eeshone. Not many call me that without regretting it, but Jaizon risked everything to come here. And he has a reputation for being a bit reckless.

“The camo suit was not my idea or construction. You can thank Ruby and McKenna for that. Similarly, the charges I used above were designed by your engineer then Makov transferred them to my ship. He met on an intercept course before I crossed into Coalition space. ”

“Makov? He’s had no military involvement since he retired.”

“He volunteered. Something about you having a tree in your house and he’d rather risk a bomb blowing up in his face than hunt a vekking rodent like he did on Ground Hog’s Day. I don’t know what he was talking about, or what a ground hog is, but he clearly stated that dealing with rodents in your tree is your job. Personally, I think my cousin lost more than a horn when the Grud attacked his ship.”

I don’t know Jaizon well, as I’ve only met him once during the rescue of Melikk’s mate, whom Jaizon had taken hostage. “Who sent you? Torin or the ZDC?”

“The ZDC denied Torin’s request to rescue you. He, The Relentless , and its crew are under orders to remain on Zyan.” He motions me onto a stone platform with him. A lift, given the vertical shaft above. “Not that their refusal would have stopped him, but we decided my plan had a higher chance of mission success.”

I’m warmed by what I’m hearing. Makov had sworn off everything involving the ZDC. Torin worked around them to recruit Jaizon and coordinate the op. As for the rest, Ruby, McKenna and the other females, their involvement does not surprise me. Our mates from Earth are as resilient and smart as any Zyanthan warrior, and they support one another and their sholans.

“Torin is quite adept at subverting ZDC orders,” I say with pride in my commander.

“The war took much from my family. Torin will not listen to orders over what is right.” Jaizon sets into a crouch, so I follow suit. We’re nearing the top of the shaft. “And my Anya always says family doesn’t give up on family. Torin considers you family. Frankly, I think that’s her way of keeping me from killing her best friend’s husband.”

“A dangerous male?”

“Just an irritating one. He agreed to guard my female and youngling until Skaggs reached Affinia. Timing was tight. I had to launch as soon as Torin contacted me, but I would not leave them unprotected.”

“Skaggs, too?” Torin called in warriors from all areas.

“He did what was necessary. We all do. Including our females.”

Jaizon feels it too. The camaraderie that exists not only among our fellow warriors, but our females. Even though he lives on Affinia and must conceal his true identity from our people including the ZDC, he had no qualm against aiding Torin. Nor did Makov. And Skaggs diverted from his work at the Galactic Alliance to cover for Jaizon.

So many people, more than my crew, came together… for me.

“Prepare yourself,” Jaizon says. “The grud are disorganized above, but they still out number us ten to one. Head to the tree line by their communications tower, then due west. Don’t get caught. My sholani expects me home in time for Christmas and I still have to find a gift. I have no idea what to give her.” He shakes his head. “Some of these human traditions confused me.

Like me, Jaizon mated a human female. Before that, he condemned her to these tunnels, which is how he knows them so well.

“My sholani nailed a clump of fovi berries over the door and each time I stand under it, she says we must kiss.” Just the thought of kissing my Jade again makes me grip the swords in my hands with fervor.

“That is a tradition I would not mind. Not that I need a reason to kiss my Anya.”

“I asked Quinnov to retrieve a special gift on Earth. A holiday treat my sholani says she hasn’t had since she was a youngling. I’ll split it with you.”

“The last I heard, Quinnov got diverted from Earth.”

“Drekk.”

“I’m sure your return will be present enough.”

I understand what he means. Leaving my family behind gets harder each mission, but I’m sure my crew and friends are with Jade, helping her, supporting her. “I think I’m beginning to understand this holiday of Christmas.”

“Good, once we’re aboard The Nomad you can explain it to me.”

The lift reaches the top and we step into an entirely new battlefield full of grud racing to put out fires and salvage what they can of their ships.