Chapter 15

Dakkan

Ididn't have to wake Sabine. She stirred beside me in the hours before dawn, eyes gleaming in the low light.

"It's time," I said, and she nodded.

We'd already packed our bags and went to sleep dressed. After saying goodnight to Lukan and refusing to make him give up his bed for a second night, we'd cuddled together in the hammock. The night had fallen, turning everything dark red. The night hushed and cooled. The elder Mitran's three companions slept inside with him. We wouldn't be contending with them, thankfully.

We eased out of the hammock and walked quietly through the clearing and down the pathway to the stream. We'd have to cross it in order to keep going in the direction that Lukan's body language had indicated the heart of the nursery lay. But as we neared the stream, a familiar figure stepped out from behind a tree.

"Don't do this." Lukan held his warriors spear.

"Do you intend to use that on us?" I gestured to the weapon. "You wish to fight me, one of your own kind?"

"I am no match for you, Warlord. I know that." He raised his chin. "But I'm asking you one last time—do not go in search of the heart. Leave the young ones alone. Leave all of them alone."

"We have no interest in harming them or bothering them," said Sabine. "We want to ask them for permission to leave. Perhaps negotiate, if they're willing."

Lukan laughed. It was a rusty, tired sound. "What could you have that they want? Think about that. They have the upper hand. They are more advanced. All that will happen is they will kill you."

"They didn't kill you," I said. "Maybe they won't kill us. We have to try."

He shook his head. "I—I can't stand being alone again. All this time…"

"If we are successful, we will ask for your freedom as well." I could feel his aching loneliness. "You can return to your Thrail. Rejoin your people, or live at mine."

Lukan just shook his head. "You will fail." His voice sounded empty, flat. "And I will bury your bones as I've had to all the others."

I took Sabine's hand and led her to the water. "Goodbye, Lukan. Hopefully we will see you again soon."

The older Mitran simply stood there, staring at the ground as we passed by and stepped into the water. There was a shallow area just a little downstream with large stones for crossing. We made it across without getting too wet. Ahead lay thick foliage, untouched and uncut. It was the direction Lukan refused to journey in, and it lay ahead of us.

I glanced back. He still stood there, in the same position, looking desolate. His shoulders were stooped. He looked old. Ancient. Lost. "Let's get going," I murmured to Sabine.

She looked back at Lukan with tears in her eyes. "I hate leaving him there like that."

"This makes our quest even more important." I helped her climb over a thick limb. "If we stayed, we would all go mad together."

"That's true." She nodded firmly. "It would be wonderful to return to him with good news."

Sabine and I made our way through the dense alien jungle. I couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. The towering trees loomed over us. Their twisted branches reached out like skeletal fingers. The air was thick with humidity, making it difficult to breathe, but we seemed to be leaving the gnarled, dark part of the habitat. Foliage was replacing vines. Even in the low red light of night, I could see a change in the vegetation.

As the light of morning lit the sky, we left the swampy area. It became more like the rest of the jungle we had known. Skrah's light began to spread over the land. It filtered through the trees, illuminating the landscape and setting it aglow. The bright tones and colors reminded me of my previous trip out to find water. "Keep an eye out for vipers," I said under my breath.

"The closer we get to the heart, the more likely we'll encounter guardians." Sabine was right about that. Lukan may have been correct in thinking that we had been followed or stalked out here. They may have held off from attacking because I'd dispatched one of them and they didn't want to risk any more losses, but they would not show such restraint if we came close to the nursery.

We didn't know how far away it was. This enclosed environment was large. But Lukan had not been able to give off a clear measure of how large. We traveled for three days, keeping an easy pace. Lukan had told us that the water that flowed through this land was clear and clean. It didn't need to be purified, so we drank frequently. I cut through the vegetation to make a trail. In the evening, I hunted, and at night, I used the stars to orient our path and we made camp. We slept wrapped together in blankets under the canopy of trees.

We saw guardians now and then. I spotted a viper high in the trees, winding its way around a trunk. Its dark eyes never left us as we passed by. A large bird, white as snow, with a double set of wings, glided above, head cocked. There was rustling in the woods. Growling. Trills. It was impossible to not feel watched.

Because we were out in the open with no safety, our vigilance was high. I resisted the urge to pull Sabine into my arms and give us both the bliss we so very much wanted from each other. To slake the thirst we had for each other's bodies. In the moments before sleep, wrapped in each other's arms, I allowed myself a few moments to let the world fall away and fell under the spell of her kiss.

Just a few moments. Any more than that and I wouldn't hear an enemy creep up. My warrior instincts would be shut down and I wouldn't perceive a threat until it sliced us apart.

The only positive thing was that during the long days when we moved through this forest, we talked. I learned much about Sabine's life before coming here. Her childhood was strange to me. She grew up strictly regimented, with parents who demanded much of her. The only thing they had wanted from her was excellence, and Sabine had delivered. She had excelled in school, every sport she undertook, and had worked harder than any child I'd ever known.

My parents, on the other hand, had simply hoped I wouldn't hurt myself too badly in my outrageous exploits with my friends. Mitran children had schooling, but it was different. Our parents taught us about the world during hunts, on scouting expeditions. We calculated how far to throw a spear and at what angle to hit a target. We studied the texts of ancestors and the recorded history of our people.

Overall, Sabine's childhood couldn't have been more different than mine. Hers had been a study in control and discipline. Mine had been one of complete freedom—maybe a bit too much freedom—until I'd won the title of warlord. But somehow our paths had led us together, to this point, where we walked in perfect step through an alien forest and towards an uncertain future.

We woke up on the fourth day from an uneasy sleep. There were many sounds in the forest. Though I had made a clearing around us, things had crept close. I held her tight. The sounds of sniffling and crunching branches had kept us both awake as we waited and listened. I could not fight everything. I didn't even want to. If we were being judged by the guardians, attacking them without provocation would not help our case.

Sabine stretched, thrusting her fingers into her hair with a groan. "I don't know what my hair looks like right now."

I looked at her head of unruly, wild curls and smiled. "It looks beautiful, just like you."

"You are out of your mind," she said with a snort. "Whatever it looks like, it's my own fault. I forgot to pack my hair wrap and left it back in my shuttle."

I rubbed a kink in my neck in a vain effort to vanish the soreness there. "Hair is the least of our problems. How did you sleep?"

"Fine." But the shadows around her eyes showed the truth. "We must be getting closer. There's so much guardian activity. Far more than there was last night."

"I agree. We must be vigilant." I pointed to the sheath in her waistband. "Keep the knife I gave you close at hand."

I winced as the morning light sliced like a white blade through the trees and against my tired eyes. Ten years ago, I could manage many nights in a row without sleep. But now, in my forty-second year of life, the lack of rest had a weight to it. We had encountered two crashed ships, but one had been too unstable to go inside of and the other had been nothing more than a debris field. That left us outside for three nights in a row. It was tiring and I couldn't imagine how hard it was for Sabine.

We had the routine down by now. We packed up quickly and ate from the ration packs we were being very careful not to deplete. We started off, but we had only gone a short distance when Sabine touched my arm and signaled for me to stop. "Do you hear that?"

I went still, senses alert. I could just make out a high-pitched sound, like the whine of an insect, but with a vibration and an urgency. "Yes. What do you think it is?"

"Something new," she said in a whisper. "I've never heard anything like it out here. Have you?"

I shook my head and tipped my spear in the direction. "It's coming from over there."

Cautiously, we crept forward, slipping past plants and shrubs, instead of hacking through them. We climbed through a dense stand of trees. On the other side, we found a small clearing.

Sabine let out a gasp at the sight there. A small creature lay on its side. It let off a dim, pale greenish glow and was roughly shaped like us. It had legs, arms, torso, and a head, but was the size of a small child. Its legs were drawn up and it did not move. It was surrounded by the same type of bioluminescent plants that we had seen earlier in our journey.

"I don't think it's a guardian," Sabine said in a tight voice. She crept forward slowly. "It looks like a child."

"Sabine, be careful. It could be a trap." My hands gripped my spear and I was ready to grab the blaster if I had to. It did look like a child, but a very sick one. Its coloring was not right. At the same time, this could very well be a trap. I was certain that we were not alone with this creature.

"Are you a young one?" Sabine asked in a soft, gentle voice. "Is this your home?"

The small being barely moved. It cracked open large, luminous eyes and blinked at Sabine. The being's mouth was tiny, as was its nose, which was little more than a small upturned twist with nostrils. Very long silver hair flowed from its head and spine, all the way down its back to its feet.

I heard a sound to our right and braced myself as a guardian stepped from the bushes. It was different from the one that had attacked Sabine the day I met her. This one walked on long, spindly legs that hinged backwards. Leather wings were tucked against its back and a long face with a serrated beak snapped in our direction.

I put myself between this beast and Sabine, who barely acknowledged it. I could see her shrugging off the pack, taking out one of her precious devices, and kneeling beside the sick creature on the ground.

"The guardian doesn't want us here," I said to her.

"Just keep it back," she said distractedly. "This little one is hurt. I need to see what's wrong." She ran the scanner over the small figure, frowning at the readout. "Oh. You're a little female. Species, unregistered to our databank," she murmured. "You took a spill, didn't you?" She looked up at a tree branch high above. Some bioluminescent strands of hair clung to the bark up there. "You fell from that high? I'm surprised you didn't break more than a leg. Let's see about fixing that."

The small patient blinked slowly at Sabine and stayed still. She watched Sabine with large, multicolored eyes, seeming to respond to Sabine's soft tone and gentle voice.

I, on the other hand, was not in as good a spot. "Sabine." I swung the spear and tacked with the guardian as it tried to circle closer. It snapped its huge beak at me and flapped leathery wings in frustration. "Speed it up. We can't stay here."

"Dakkan, this is an organic being, the likes of which I've never seen before," she said. "She is of an entirely unknown species to us and is so incredibly unique. The luminescent qualities in her tissues are remarkable. She has many of the same circulatory and digestive systems that we do. She eats meat and plant life."

"Great. Now we know what keeps the prey population in check," I said. "Hurry it up and skip the scientific analysis. If another guardian shows up, we're done."

"Working on it." She did not seem to feel the same urgency as me. Methodically, she removed several of the devices from her pack. I saw her hesitate, fingers on the power switch. She didn't turn it on.

"What are you waiting for?" I asked. "Treat her or don't. I can't hold this guardian back forever."

"It's just…the power drain. I have one treatment left in the regenerator to treat this broken bone and give her an infusion of medication to accelerate healing. But that'll be it. There won't be any power left in it in case we need it."

"What makes you think we'll need it? Make a decision," I said, very firmly this time. "Make it now."

The guardian was getting desperately close to its charge. The small female on the ground let out more of the shrill, vibrating sound, which seemed to cause the guardian distress.

Sabine muttered something to herself and powered on the device. She inputted some settings and pressed the device to the female's broken leg. The high-pitched sound stopped and the little one let out a different noise, one that wasn't quite as dire-sounding. This was lower pitched, like a self-comforting hum.

Sabine was in full doctor mode, dispensing medication, then running the scanner over the being again. She looked satisfied and placed her fingers lightly over the leg. "Your bones have knitted," she said to the small female. "That must have felt strange to you, but the pain should be going away. You're going to be just fine."

Sabine's patient unfolded from her tight ball. The green cast began to leach away, leaving her body a brilliant, luminescent silver. It was the same color as her hair. She blinked enormous jewel-toned eyes at Sabine, who smiled back at her in wonder. "You feel better now, don't you?" she asked in that same gentle, calm voice. "I'm glad I could help you. Be more careful up there, okay?" Sabine glanced up at the branch the young female had fallen from.

The small being smiled back and even I had to admit, the effect was blinding. Whatever this species was, it was dazzling to behold. The light it emitted alone was like sparkling crystal. The small female lightly touched Sabine's face with her long, slender fingers, leaving a light luminous residue on Sabine's cheek. Then, she rose with one fluid motion and bolted into the forest. She disappeared into the brightly hued foliage.

The guardian tossed its huge head at me, let out a growl, then bolted into the forest, following the young one like a nanny trying to chase after a wayward charge.

"Well." I rested on my spear and looked back at Sabine, who was once again carefully placing her devices back into their cases. "How much power did that drain from them?"

"All of it," she said tightly. "The only thing that works is the scanner, which isn't going to cure or treat anything."

"Hopefully we won't need it." I patted the pouch at my belt. "If we do, I always have my healing bundle."

"Okay," she said. "I suppose it's better than nothing. Your people have survived on those methods."

"I'm glad you're coming around."

"Your powders and pastes are nothing compared to the healing capabilities of this device." She held up the regenerator. "And it's dead. If we get injured, we will have an open wound until we're out of here. Do you realize how dangerous that is? I can't even begin to guess the likelihood of infection in a place like this."

My brows tipped together. "I've had my fair share of open wounds. I have survived."

Her hands shook as she put away the last of her instruments. She rubbed an agitated hand over her forehead. "Of course. I know. I'm just uneasy without the most effective tools for treating injuries. Out here, anything could happen."

"Being without these devices of yours is not a death sentence," I said. "I know how to treat injuries. I've done it before. Not every hunt goes smoothly. You have only to look at my scars to know that."

Her gaze ran over my torso, taking in puckers and marks that denoted those ill-fated trips. "I hope we reach the center of this place soon and can get out of here."

"So do I, but since those devices are useless now, leave them here," I said. "Your pack is too heavy. It will slow us down."

"There are hundreds of thousands of credits' worth of equipment in this bag," she snapped. "I'm not abandoning it in the middle of this alien forest."

I crossed my arms. "Suit yourself. The time may come when you have to let them go."

She looked mutinous as she glared at me. "Who knows? We may find a power source somewhere."

I shook my head and we started off again, this time following the direction that the young female alien had taken. Sabine knew as well as I did that we would not find a power source out here. There would be no power sources until we returned to my Thrail. But her commitment to these tools was as fierce as mine to my spear, so I did not argue with her. Neither of us had the energy. And I was beginning to think neither of us had the time, either.

The guardians would decide our fate if we didn't get an audience with whoever ruled this place soon, and if this last encounter with a guardian was an indicator, we would not be judged favorably.