Quest for Freedom Page 15

  “Illusions again,” Ash said. “Somebody really likes those things.”

  Krav’n took Janai’s hand. “Who are these people, Janai?”

  “I don’t know.” She leaned in for a closer look. Something in one of the illusions startled her.

  Several pairs of red glowing eyes gathered in the dark near a tree, and an alien reached out to them. The similarities between the alien in the illusion and those the Morgee had kidnapped caught her attention. The alien stood on two legs, bipedal like Janai and the others. It had small ridges on the forehead, similar to Krav’n’s, with tufts of yellow hair protruding near the back of the head. The hands, thin like her own, consisted of six digits. The four in the middle of the hand looked fused together in two pairs. There was a shorter finger, or thumb, on either side of the hand. She couldn’t tell what the feet looked like through the gray shoes, but she guessed they were similar to the hands.

  In another image, two aliens stood as tall as a nearby boulder, and another three were much smaller. She had no way of knowing just how tall they were in reality, but if they were her height, then one of the shorter ones seemed as tall as Krav’n. Another was slightly smaller, while the third was infant size and cradled in the arms of one of the taller aliens. Children perhaps.

  The one holding the infant was probably female because she appeared to have small breasts protruding from the chest area. The female’s almost round eyes were large and dark and gave off a slightly red hue. She had blue tinged skin, a very small nose, and large ears. Fleshy lips accentuated her mouth, which revealed large, gray teeth. But the most shocking thing was that they all wore gray jumpsuits almost identical to the ones Janai and her group wore. The only difference seemed to be the gold emblems that adorned the upper area of the aliens’ sleeves. If they were slave diggers, Janai had never seen or heard of their race.

  “Who are they?” Krav’n said again. Janai was thinking the very same question as she absently placed her hand on the boy’s head ridges.

  “Look at this one,” Ash called.

  She sucked in her breath when she saw it. The aliens in this illusion looked almost identical to the others, except that each held a light-fire weapon. There was no mistaking this instrument with its black, slightly curved shape. The weapons fit perfectly in the aliens’ hands. One carried a strange device Janai had never seen before. It was curved, but blue in color, and had a very wide opening at one end with a narrow fiber protruding from it. She had no idea of its use.

  “What are those?” Penny was standing in the center of the room with her head craned up at the ceiling. Janai and the others joined her. Several black holes adorned the ceiling.

  “Maybe they’re lights,” Blal’k said.

  “I’m hungry.” Penny had taken her attention off the mysterious ceiling holes and focused on her brother, Lance.

  Janai couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her lips. She was always amused the little ones could forget everything else when their stomachs wanted food.

  Ash leaned over Janai’s shoulder. “We may as well eat.” He was taller than she was now.

  She had no idea how long they’d traveled through the tunnel but her stomach certainly wouldn’t protest a meal. So they ate.

  When the cold meal was finished, the group searched the dimly illuminated room for an exit. They took off in different directions, running hands over areas of the smooth, shiny walls, searching for hidden doorways, buttons or symbols. Anything that might lead them out. After what seemed like an hour, at least, they met back in the center of the room, disheartened.

  Janai said, collapsed onto the floor. “There’s got to be something we missed.”

  “Yeah,” Penny said, flopping beside her. Tish mirrored the two, followed by Krav’n. Janai chuckled and looked over at Ash.

  “I’ve been trying,” he said, before she could even ask the question.

  Lance flailed his arms. “So, what? We spend the rest of our lives in here? It’s like being trapped in a dungeon. For eternity.”

  Janai studied him. He’d never acted like this before. “Calm down.” She stood and placed a hand on his shoulder but he knocked her arm away. “Lance, we’ll find a way out.”

  “How do you know?” His voice caught. “You don’t know.” He sat on the floor with his head on his knees. “Nobody knows.” Janai could tell he was crying and she looked to Ash.

  “Come on,” Ash said to the others, possibly reading her thoughts. “Let’s see if we can find that opening.” They moved away. Penny didn’t move from her spot on the floor, but she let Ash pick her up and carry her.

  Janai sat next to the sobbing boy. This time, he allowed her touch and she placed an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. He wrapped his arms around her neck. She didn’t say anything. She just held his shaking body and allowed him to cry. After several moments, he stopped and pulled away, wiping his face. He sniffed and Janai offered him a rag to blow his nose. He looked so young, so lost.

  “I hate them.” He rubbed at his eye. “They killed my parents and I hate them.”

  “I know.”

  “You don’t understand.” A hint of desperation colored his voice. “My parents taught us never to hate anyone. They said it’s bad to hate.” His hands were wringing the cloth. “But I do. I hate the Morgee.” His red-rimmed eyes searched Janai’s face. “Does that make me a bad person?”

  “No. It makes you a regular person.” She hated the Morgee, too. “Maybe someday, when all the slaves are free, we won’t hate them anymore.”

  His voice brightened a little. “You think?” Janai shrugged and forced a smile. “Can I—” He clamped his lips shut.

  “What?”

  He looked at the rag in his hands. “Can I sort of—you know—be sort of your brother?”

  Janai chuckled in relief. “You already are.”

  He gave her a tight hug. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” she said, and together they laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Penny was standing next to her brother. Janai hadn’t even heard the girl approach.

  “Nothing.” Lance grabbed her, pressed his mouth soundly against her cheek and blew, making silly noises. The little girl squealed and squirmed in her brother’s arms, trying to push his lips away.

  “I found something,” Vala called from one of the far walls.

  Janai had to get right next to the wall to see it. A perfectly square crack about as thin as a single hair, similar to the one in the rockdome’s entrance alcove. That one had opened at her touch, allowing them a way out of the rain. Where does this one lead? One way to find out. “Go ahead, Vala.”

  Slowly, Vala reached her hand up and placed it in the middle of the square. Her hand was a near perfect fit. The panel slid open to reveal four, black buttons. There were no lights on these buttons but they had symbols written on them. Vala pressed the first one. A hissing sound came from the ceiling and cool, fresh air blowing in from the holes Penny had discovered earlier. Vala pressed the second button. This one illuminated the room, but Janai couldn’t tell where the light originated. The walls themselves seemed to glow. The third button opened the door they’d come through. Vala’s hand paused over the fourth and last.

  “Go ahead.” Janai held her breath.

  Vala pressed the button. The entire wall on the opposite side of the entrance shimmered and disappeared. Janai sucked in a startled breath and squinted at the brightness of the twin suns. The wall had opened to the outside but they were no longer in the mountains.

  Janai was looking out onto the flatter lands with hills dotting the distance. Where had the tunnel taken them? More important, which side of the mountain?

  24 ~ Contests

  “Whoa.” Ash held up the new, skin map.

  “What is it?” the two Aknideans said in unison.

  “I don’t believe this.” He was looking in the direction of one of the distant hills.

  “What, Ash?” Janai didn’t hide her impatience.
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  “We’re on the free-zone side of the mountain.” He ran a hand through his white curls. “See? That’s this hill.”

  Janai stepped in for a closer look. “You sure it’s the same one?”

  “Yes. It’s the only one with that bowl shape on the top.”

  Janai studied the hill then focused on the map again. He was right. She remembered it. When they were on the plateau arguing over where to draw the reflected ship. The tunnel had cut days, maybe even weeks, off their trek through the mountains, but there was still the question of the Morgee and the ship they’d seen moving across the landscape.

  “Maybe we should stay here until we can figure out which way to go,” Vala said.

  That’s not a bad idea. As far as they knew, this room was safe from the Morgee. “See if you can close the wall.” That sounded a little absurd to her, closing a wall, but she couldn’t think of another way to phrase it.

  No matter. Vala knew what she meant and she pressed the fourth button again. Nothing happened. She tried again. When the wall didn’t respond, she tried the other buttons. The air and lights went off and off at her touch.

  “Let me try something,” Gryden said, and he stepped through the open wall to the outside. It reappeared a few seconds after he crossed over. Vala triggered it to disappear by pressing the last button again. Gryden joined them in the room again. Vala tried once again to close the wall, but got no response.

  “Great,” Ash said. “We’ll only be safe in here if one of us stays outside.”

  “We have to stick together,” Lance said in a worried tone.

  That settled it. They would all have to leave. They had a better chance fighting off Morgee as a group. They quickly gathered up the scattered heat rocks from the room and stepped out into the sunlight. Once clear of the wall, it reappeared. From this side, the illusion looked like a huge boulder at the foot of the mountain.

  “Maybe there’s some way to open it from out here,” Lance said. His pale blue eyes looked almost clear in the bright light of the suns. After several minutes of running hands around the boulder and carefully checking in the brush surrounding it, they gave up hope of getting back inside.

  Ash marked this spot on their new map, and Janai brought out the runner’s map for comparison. The suns were past midpoint in the sky and she guessed they had about three or four hours of light left. She looked out onto the landscape then to the runner’s map, trying to pinpoint their location and the original trail. Janai, Ash, Vala, Blal’k, Gryden and Lance took turns comparing map to land, while the three youngest played at their feet.

  “It’s hard to tell,” Blal’k said. “That hill could be this one.”

  Vala shifted her earflaps at the call of a flier in a nearby tree. “We’re on the wrong side of it to see the marker.”

  “Vala’s right,” Janai said. “We won’t know if we’re near the path until we start moving.” She rolled her head to relieve stiffness in her neck. “At least we can travel in the general direction of the trail.”

  The others agreed. They began heading away from the mountains into the brush and trees of the flatter lands. Each time they came to something they thought would make a good marker, they checked the runner’s map. Janai guessed they’d traveled almost two hours and still no luck finding the trail. They stopped to relieve themselves.

  Krav’n pointed to a red clump of brush. “I want to go that way.”

  “That’ll take us the wrong way,” Ash said.

  “But I like those bushes. I want to go that way.”

  Ash laughed and took the boy’s webbed hand. “Come on, silly.” As he began walking, the little boy jerked his hand free and stopped. “What’s wrong?”

  “I wanna go that way.” There was a determined look on his face, and Janai stiffened when she realized what he was doing. Krav’n held the backs of his little, webbed hands up to Ash and blinked his vertical eyelids several times.

  Here we go again. She was glad the others knew what to do if contested and she glanced at Blal’k, who watched the exchange.

  Ash pulled himself to full height and stepped in front of Krav’n. Quickly, he grabbed both of Krav’n’s hands in his own and stared down into the little Ronarian face. “You’ll go where I tell you to go. Is that clear?” Krav’n blinked again but Ash held his ground.

  “Okay,” the little boy finally said. A small grin crept onto his lips.

  Ash released his hands, and Krav’n immediately gave the messenger a hug around his middle then ran to join the two little girls, who were watching him with great interest. Glad the contest was over, Janai let her breath out in a noisy rattle. She gave a grimace to Ash and Blal’k. All three chuckled and the group continued on their way with Ash in the lead.

  The next couple of hours were uneventful. As the second sun neared the horizon, they agreed to find a resting place for the night. They also agreed to switch to night travel once they were far enough away from the mountains and clear of any snapper hideouts. Just the thought of the spiny, flesh-chewing creatures made Janai shiver.

  Gryden located a natural arch made up of water-smoothed rocks slammed together during years of floods. Soft grass grew nearby and they decided to make camp there. Vala killed a jumper and Blal’k hid under the rock arch to hide the heat stones while he cooked. They still had enough water to afford some cooking. The jumper stew was some of the best Janai had tasted, and Blal’k beamed when she and the others told him just that.

  The mild smell of dinner still hung in the air when Janai’s mind wandered to the Morgee and she realized something. She didn’t know whether the Morgee were able to smell or not. She couldn’t remember them ever showing interest in smells. She was grateful they’d figured out how to disable the awful aliens, even if the effects might be only temporary. She had no idea what her group would do if they ran into the soldiers again. They had no light-fire weapons to use on the tentacles. Her body became a knot of tension at the thought of the Morgee and she decided to push them from her mind, at least for now.

  She jumped when hand landed on her shoulder. “Oh, Ash.” She tried to control the involuntary shiver that ran up her spine. “Don’t do that.”

  “Stop scaring yourself. And I didn’t pry.” He held up a defensive hand. “You were broadcasting so loudly I had no choice but to hear you.” Heat rose in Janai’s face and she turned to cover the blush she knew was on her cheeks. Ash laughed.

  “What’s so funny, Messenger?”

  “You.” He sat beside her. “You’re pretty cute when you’re embarrassed.”

  That did it. Not only was her face getting hotter, but he also began to annoy her. “I am not. And be quiet.” Her eyes darted around the camp. “The others might hear.”

  “So what.” He put an arm around her shoulders. “They know I like you.”

  “Yeah, well.” She tried to ignore the feelings stirring inside her but her blood was racing and her breaths became more rapid. This once awkward Kritine boy’s arm felt warm and safe around her shoulders. He was closer to being a man than a boy. “Ash, we can’t afford any distractions just now.” She smiled, apologetically.

  He thought a moment. “Yeah, you’re right.” Then he gave her a broad grin. “It’ll be difficult, though.” He glanced around then placed a quick kiss on her mouth, and she slapped him playfully on the arm.

  “Hey,” a small voice called from behind. They turned to see Krav’n running toward them. “Aren’t you coming to bed?”

  Ash gave Janai a smoldering look that made her blush. “Yeah,” she said quickly. She cursed Kritine lifemate urges under her breath and Ash chuckled.

  This was going to be one long night if they couldn’t keep control over themselves.

  25 ~ Rain, Rain, Go Away

  Something jolted Janai out of her sleep. A loud crack shook the ground and she sat, rubbing her eyes.

  “Get up,” Vala called as she gathered supplies. “There’s a storm coming.”

  Janai shook the sleep from her head and
smelled the familiar scent of rain. Most of the sky had disappeared and only one of the nearly full moons was visible near the eastern horizon. The winds were picking up, and she forced herself into movement. The group frantically gathered whatever they could. But where were they going to wait out the storm? There was no place for them to hide. Janai tied her sinsabe around her waist, rolled her pack and looped it over her shoulder.

  Vala shifted her earflaps. “We don’t have much time. We need to find shelter.”

  They’d have a slim chance of survival if they stayed where they were. But where?

  They ran toward a large boulder near a clump of old trees. The land sloped slightly westward and they needed something between them and the rushing water that would soon be traveling in that direction. They reached the boulder but there was no hiding place, and the boulder wasn’t large enough to keep a flood from washing them away. Then it started. The rains came hard and fast. The area would flood in a matter of minutes.

  “Penny!” Lance yelled. The group followed his gaze up to the old tree with the boulder resting against it.

  Penny was climbing and the rest needed no prompting. They hoisted Tish and Krav’n onto the boulder and told them to follow the little Earth girl up the tree. Lance quickly followed. Vala and Gryden were awkward at climbing but their determination won out and they managed. Gryden’s ribs seemed to be causing him pain and Vala had to help him. Ash and Janai were the last ones on the ground and Janai couldn’t see her feet through the rushing water. Ash supported her until she was on the boulder. Then she and Blal’k helped him up.

  The three climbed as fast as they could without falling. The wet foliage made some of the branches slippery and Janai lost her footing more than once. This tree was huge and sturdy and she silently praised Penny for her choice, even if the girl simply climbed out of panic.

  Janai moved by touch now. The rain stung at her face and eyes and she couldn’t see a thing. A hand grabbed her arm and yanked her onto a sturdy branch in a somewhat sheltered part of the tree. She wrapped her arms around another branch for support. The group huddled in a large curvature of the old tree, protected by the thick upper branches and foliage. The rain was so loud it was impossible to hear anything else. However, they were all together and safe for the moment.