24. Chapter 24

My eyes searched for Gwyn the next morning. She was always one of the first up to help with the tents. When it was time to leave, I still hadn't seen her, so I approached her friend, whose name I thought was Kenley.

"Have you seen Gwyn?" I demanded without preamble.

Kenley's eyes moved from side to side. Looking down at the ground, she mumbled, "I think she's with Dawn, collecting stuff."

That made sense to me. I had seen her take off with Dawn before.

"Khadahr, may I talk to you for a moment?"

Distracted, I stared at Sandra. I would have rather faced another xythrax than her, but she was here because I had asked for it, and I felt I owed her at least some of my time.

"Sandra? "

"I was wondering if it would be possible for some of us to travel on those… those…" She pointed at the travois my warriors used to transport our supplies.

"Travois," I helped her out.

"Travois, yes." She bestowed a brilliant smile on me. One that would have made any male melt and lie at her feet. She was undoubtedly beautiful, just not for me.

"What about them?"

"I was wondering if some of the women could travel on them." She batted her long eyelashes. "It's getting awfully hard for us."

I clenched my jaw, reminding myself that gallies were to be treasured. But these gallies had been served on hand and foot for the last few days without putting any effort into helping.

"I don't think that would be in your best interest," I heard myself reply, more diplomatic than I felt. "You will need to build your endurance if you want to live on Vandruk. We can take a couple more breaks if that would help?" I offered as a compromise, groaning inwardly at all the time we were losing.

"Of course, that would be wonderful." Her smile deepened, showing two rows of brilliant white teeth.

Her agreeability should have raised my alarms, but just then, a fight broke out between two of my warriors and several of Commander Willis' human guards.

The interference distracted me enough that I didn't worry much about Gwyn over the course of the day. Whenever I tried to catch a glimpse of her, she wasn't around, but I wasn't too concerned, because she and Dawn had been picking at plants and rocks every day, and not always within view. I didn't like it, but I soothed myself that I would speak to her during the next break.

The next break, however, never came. As a group of scouts returned, excitedly reporting the sighting of a group of gronks, I took the lead on the hunt. Gronks made excellent eating, and one was big enough to feed all of us all the way home.

Five of the human guards accompanied us but stayed back when it came to the actual hunt. For some reason, I thought about Gwyn when I threw my spear to help bring down the animal we had singled out. I thought she would have enjoyed this. She seemed to love to learn about Vandruk, and I would have liked to show my prowess off to her.

I drew my brows together at that thought. Liked to show my prowess off ? I would have laughed at the notion, but it hit home too much to be funny. That human female was getting to me in more ways than I liked, but I supposed that was a good thing if we were to spend the rest of our lives with one another.

When it was dinnertime and I still hadn't seen Gwyn, I became concerned. I looked for Kenley. When I saw her standing with Sandra and her group, a funny sensation spread through my stomach. I had never seen Kenley hang out with Sandra and the others. As Gwyn's friend, I thought Sandra disliked Kenley just as much as Gwyn.

Red hair caught my attention—Dawn.

My stomach muscles twisted in a way I recognized as an instinctual warning. Something was wrong.

"Dawn. "

"Khadahr Tzar-Than," she greeted back politely but looked distressed.

And just like that, I knew her answer to my question before I asked it. I posed it, nevertheless, while more knots tightened in my stomach and chest. "Have you seen Gwyn?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing. I haven't seen her all day. She and I were supposed to find more samples this morning, but she never showed."

My heart rate picked up a notch. Where the hell was Gwyn?

"I asked Kenley," Dawn blabbered on without noticing my darkening mood. "But she said Gwyn slept in. And later she said Gwyn went hunting with you."

"Kenley!" I bellowed, pivoting away from a startled Dawn.

Kenley still stood with the other females. Her face blanched when she saw me thundering toward her.

I grabbed her by the arm. "You lied to me."

She gasped. I was applying too much pressure to her fragile arm, but at that moment, I didn't care. Concern for Gwyn overshadowed everything. "Where is she?"

"Ouch! Please, you're hurting me," Kenley complained, trying to jerk her arm away from my grip, which only inflicted more pain on her.

Warriors and humans gathered around us.

"Take your hands off her," Willis ordered.

Not in the mood to deal with him, I nodded at Szun-Var to take care of the quarrelsome human guard leader.

"Where is she?" I repeated my question .

"Please. She asked me not to tell," Kenley wailed.

"Tell what?" I was losing my patience. If Gwyn was out there by herself somewhere, she would face all kinds of dangers. I had no idea why she would be out in the wildlands on her own.

"She left," Kenley sobbed, still jerking on her arm. "She left early this morning. She said she didn't want to deal with this planet any longer and that she wanted to go home."

"You're lying," I yelled, shaking her.

"No, it's true," another female whom I had seen share the tent with Gwyn moved forward, shaking slightly, making it obvious she was scared. Her name came back to me—Michaela. "I saw her pack her bag and leave."

That couldn't be. Why would she leave?

Our last encounter played in my mind. Gwyn had seemed pleased with her gift. She hadn't shown any indication of wanting to return to Earth.

"She's lying," Dawn said between clenched teeth. "Gwyn would never want to go back to Earth. She loves Vandruk."

Behind us, a small commotion broke out as Szun-Var and some of my other warriors kept the human guards from interfering with my interrogation.

"I'm not lying. It's the truth," Kenley wailed. "Let go of my arm."

I narrowed my eyes at her. I hadn't spent much time with these females, but I knew when I was being lied to.

"I will lash you myself if you don't tell me where she is, right now," I threatened .

"It's the truth," Michaela cried and flung herself against Kenley.

"They're both lying." Another female stepped forward—Sophia. I remembered she was also sharing a tent with Gwyn. "When I woke up this morning, Gwyn's bed looked like it hadn't been slept in. I never saw Gwyn come home that night."

"You were sleeping," Kenley spat. "How would you know?"

"Because I woke up in the middle of the night to go pee," Sophia said, glaring at Kenley, "and she wasn't there."

"Fine. So she left in the evening"—Sandra shrugged—"who cares? She's gone."

Had I not been so consumed with worry about Gwyn, I would have wailed against the gods for putting me in this situation. Males, I could handle. Males, I would have already beaten senseless until they would have told me where Gwyn was. But gallies? All this complaining and crying was wearing on me, and I had a hard time remembering why I had asked for them.

But then Gwyn's face popped into my head, and I knew why. I would do anything for her. She was the kind of gallis I wanted for my clan, for myself.

Sandra's hands were stuffed into the pockets of her pants. She clenched and unclenched them. A soft, clicking sound reached my ears, and I jumped forward, grabbing her wrist and pulling it out of her pocket. With it came Gwyn's necklace.

I grabbed Sandra's throat and pulled her off her feet. "Where is she?"

Sandra's face turned from red to blue, and her eyes bulged as only grunts and groans escaped her lips. Realizing I was choking her, I set her back down and allowed her a few gasps of air before I fisted her shirt. "Where?"

"She's dead," Sandra spat. "The stupid troll tripped over her feet and hit her head on a rock. She's dead."

I didn't believe that story for a second. Whatever they had done to her, I would find out.

"I'll go back, and you better pray I find her alive. If she really is dead, you won't see another sunrise when I return," I threatened.

"You stay here, make camp, and keep an eye on the humans," I yelled at my warriors. "Take their weapons." I nodded at the human guards, who protested, but I wasn't about to trust any of them. "I will return with Gwyn, my khadahrshi, the one the gods willed to be my mate, the only gallis in history to slay a xythrax!"

I looked for Szun-Var, who gave me a tight nod and threw a waterskin at me. He would follow my orders.

"Khadahr Tzar-Than," a voice called me.

I turned toward Dawn, who held a small, red bag out to me. "This is a first aid kit. There's medicine inside she might need. Please find her."

I jerked my chin in thanks and took off in a sprint, back the way we came, praying I wasn't too late.