Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 113

 

“We’ve already given away the element of surprise,” Garjah said. “They will expect me to try to flee the city, so they’ll be on the lookout for anywhere I might go, like my house or the port.”

“Which is why you won’t do that,” Ases said. “We’re going to get my mech. You’re staying here to distract the Kardoval.”

Garjah raised his eyebrows, the skin on his forehead wrinkling around the ridges pushing back from his forehead and curling around his skull. He looked skeptical. “How exactly am I doing that?”

Ases had been somewhat vague on that part of the plan before. Chaintrik stepped forward. “We have several different members of the Kardoval’s security officers who are willing to provide diversions when you are seen, but you need to be obvious in your attempts to escape the city.”

“Attempts… to escape.”

“Of course. Medical supplies, maybe some food, attempts to take a transport. You’ll be seen with weapons.”

“Why would I need medical supplies?” Garjah shook his head. “The damage they created wasn’t physical, and they know that.”

“For Essell, of course. He’s going to have been injured in the attack to rescue you, just like a clumsy human.” Timok ignored the look I shot him. “I have a few tricks I can use that will make it look like he’s injured without hampering his movements. Much.”

“Ases, do you really think it’s a good idea to go off by yourself?” I still hadn’t let Garjah let me go, but I was turned in his arms to face sideways so I could see everyone in the meeting.

“I’m used to it. I’ve not been locked away at the Institute this whole time, Essell, despite what you think.”

I wasn’t so sure he was as experienced as he thought, but I wasn’t going to be able to change his mind. As well as he knew me, I knew him and he’d made up his mind. He was going. I gave in, as gracelessly as possible. “Fine. Whatever. Don’t think I won’t get you back for whatever you do to me,” I warned Timok.

“Oh, I’m very afraid.” He didn’t even have the grace to pretend I was threatening.

One of these days I was going to get Bouncer to do something very mean to him. My friend craned his head back against my belly, glancing up where he was curled over mine and Garjah’s feet. I scratched the underside of his jaw where the skin was softer. “Later,” I said.

I would swear a gleam entered his eyes. It must have been the flickering light of the caves. “If we’re going to do this, it should be now.”

“Now?” I twisted in Garjah’s arms. “As in right now? Shouldn’t we… wait for something? Like a meal, or rest, or—”

“There’s nothing more important than stopping the Kardoval, and we’ve eaten and rested already.” He was right, stars take him, but he didn’t have to be all the time.

“Fine. Let’s go.” I stood and pushed Bouncer forward. “Well, are you coming?” I looked back over my shoulder and raised an eyebrow, going for imperious and impatient at once.

“We’re going to need to go back that way.” Garjah pointed in the opposite direction I was facing, toward the outer clothing we’d stored as soon as we came into the central cave system. They must have mined in hotter air from beneath because it was warmer. “Chaintrik, can your people get us all set up?”

“It’s already in motion.” Apparently Timok was so arrogantly assured of our answer because he hadn’t waited for it.

 

I sat below the entrance to a city street because Garjah decided that despite what the Kardoval was supposed to think, he wasn’t going to risk me until he was sure we were being pursued. His first pop up hadn’t been spotted. The second he’d tripped an alarm—on purpose. Scared the life out of me.

Now I listened for my cue. I was supposed to come out with Bouncer, run to him, and then limp back toward the building to our left. There was a back exit that would get us close to another tunnel entrance a block over since three buildings connected on the block.

My heart was hammering so loud, I was worried I wouldn’t hear the signal, but when it came, it was loud and clear. I pushed open the concealed shaft top, waited for Bouncer, then shut it quietly, kicking some trash from the alley on top of it. Then I ran.

Bouncer lead the way straight to Garjah. A little too straight! We ran right into a firefight, one I hadn’t expected. “We have to go,” Garjah said.

I ducked as the whine of a blast hit over my head. Heat and ozone filled the air. Iddddddddd shrieked as a corner of one building crumpled. “What kind of ammunition are they using?” I asked in shock.

“Piercing live rounds. They have orders to shoot to kill. Both of us.” Garjah took both of my left arm. “Run. Fast.”

He didn’t have to say it twice. We all ran, and by some grace of whatever gods might or might not be real, no one got shot. Then again, they did say some on the Kardoval’s security team would be on his side, which could help Garjah. Did they just mean not die? Or where he was supposed to get hit?

Or worse, where I was supposed to be shot. I didn’t want to get shot. The damn makeshift bandages trapped wrapped around my neck and pinning my movements and breathing. “What else… do we have to… do?” I panted.

Garjah was carrying a large, makeshift bag. “Hide,” he said.

“I can do that.” We ducked into the building. Security officers poured in after us. 

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Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 112

 

“So I’m good at keeping them safe.”

“You are, but it’s more than that.” Rubbing Garjah’s shoulders, I tried to put all the conviction I had into my voice, because until he believed, it didn’t matter what I said. “But let’s talk about what we need to do in order to stop the Kardoval. I’m thinking about using your strengths. Your ability to plan, to think of all the different angles and contingencies, and know what the potential risks and benefits may be. All the skills you used when we crafted the agreement with the Galactic on behalf of your people, who love you by the way, needs to be used to show them their true natures. I think that this whole memories thing, and your culture, has been crafted deliberately into the existing structure with the Kardoval in the position of power on purpose.”

“But it’s true. We do have these memories we can activate that make learning our careers easy.”

“You do,” I agreed. “I’ve seen it in action. But that doesn’t mean you can’t choose to learn a different skill. That some don’t have the ability, and memories, for more than one career path too. But belief is a strong thing.” They believed they could only follow one path in life, and they believed in those they chose as their leaders. But there was a limit to that. All these rebels proved that.

They could choose to think for themselves and make better choices about what was right and wrong.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

He didn’t see it. “Your people believe in you, Garjah. That ‘you would never bring harm to them’,” I quoted. “Every single person I spoke to, outside of the Kardoval and their lackeys, feels that way. Do you think the whole world feels the same way about them?”

Timok popped his head into our doorway. “The answer to that question is no.”

What the stars? I jerked nearly off my feet, smacking into Garjah’s chest. “What are you doing here?” The lack of privacy was atrocious, and I glared at him. “Shouldn’t you be off torturing and studying something?”

“I am.” His eyes gleamed in the pale light in the underground room.

“Ugh. Go away.” I pulled an arm out of Garjah’s embrace and shooed him off. “Stop being annoying.”

“That’s not possible.” Garjah’s voice rumbled in his chest, vibrating against my stomach. “He’s genetically conditioned to drive those around him insane.” His voice sounded fond regardless.

“Offensive,” Timok said the word as if he was the furthest thing from offended that he could possibly be. “I was just walking by, overheard what you were talking about far too loud, by the way, and offered my opinion. Since I’m the second old—”

“Oh goodie, we get to hear how old somebody should be to lead the group.” If that was the case, I wouldn’t lead a paper bag.

“Tut, tut, jealousy does not become you,” Timok said regally.

“Oh, shut it,” Garjah growled. “What did you really want? I know you weren’t sent to get us; they’d just use the comm for that. There’s nothing near our room to just pass by for, so spill it.”

“We may have a plan that I think will work with Essell’s idea.” Timok smirked when I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Who’s we?”

“Ases and me.”

“Why would Ases work with you?”

“Because I’m awesome?”

He was annoying, and offensive, and at times I loathed him. But if Ases had an idea, I’d listen. Which he knew. I huffed. “Fine. What is the idea?”

“Why don’t you come listen?”

“Huh?”

Timok looked past me to Garjah. He still had me wrapped up in his arms, and I wasn’t about to let him let me go. I’d missed him, and the touch grounded us both. “You know, sometimes he’s brilliant, and other times… not so much.”

I growled, and Garjah rubbed a hand down my back. Bouncer shifted where he lay on the bed behind Garjah, but Timok didn’t even flinch. I huffed, then decided to ignore Timok. That would drive him more crazy than responding to him. “Not Ases said he knew what you’d tell Garjah, and he was right based on what I overheard. So come listen to our plan, which he’s going to tell the rebel leaders. We need their help.”

“We do?”

Timok sighed. “Is it catching? Yes, we do. Now, come on. All three of you.”

 

The leaders of the rebellion against the Kardoval were either there in person or listening by comm as Ases outlined a plan I didn’t know I’d help come up with. He credited me with a large portion of it though. The first part of the plan was to get Ases’ mech out of Garjah’s home. We needed it’s capabilities to transmit, which the techs believed they’d dismantled on Garjah’s orders.

Ases’ father had bought him a better mech assistant than they knew, despite their advanced technology. With it, we’d be able to bypass the hold the Kardoval had on communication to the people. After that, it was revealing the evidence the rebels had and showing them the truth that Garjah had discovered.

That the Galactic wasn’t an enemy to be afraid of. The rest of the universe could be an ally. Their people could grow and change; tradition didn’t have to dictate their existence. The people who wanted more, who wanted choices and a different life could have that too and still belong.

And just what the Kardoval had been willing to do to keep the truth from the people and themselves in power. 

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Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 111

 

“Are you all right?”

I stopped and stared at Garjah. He sat on the edge of the bed in our quarters, and I was pacing in front of him. “You’re asking me that?”

He still had that look in his eyes at times when he wasn’t talking to someone. It was like the world grew still around him, and he froze. I tried to always be close when that happened, and touch him gently, pulling Garjah back to reality in a way that would soothe him and keep those around us safe.

Deep dents marred one wall where he’d lashed out with two arms and barely missed getting Ases who tucked and rolled out of the way just before the edge of each palm would have impacted a vulnerable spot on his neck and groin. His shifter genetics were the only thing that let him move that fast, but it also made it harder for him not to move quietly and set Garjah off unexpectedly, so Ases was giving him space. The rest of his people looked up to him and simply saw him as the male who protected them and couldn’t fathom what he’d been through and how it’d hurt him.

But I could see it.

I’d seen it before, in animals. Creatures who were taken from their homes and family groups and put into cages to be studied, what amounted to torture in my opinion. It was why I only studied natural wildlife and on-planet studies. No lab work with living specimens; that was just cruel, especially with anything that could potentially be intelligent, much less a sentient being.

With the wildly diverse makeup of beings in the Galactic, that was harder to determine than the average layperson might think. Too many oblivious scientists got it wrong. Trauma crossed so many barriers.

And try as hard as he might to hide it, no matter what clarity our bond had brought back to him, Garjah had experienced trauma that had his nerves jangling and exposed to any perceived threat. We’d been too tired to talk about it when we had some privacy before, but I couldn’t let him hide from me anymore.

“Yes.”

“No. We’re not talking about me. I was scared, but I had Bouncer, and Ases, and Timok came for us. You were alone, you had no idea what was happening, and they were hurting you.”

“I’m fine.” He spread his arms. “Nothing to see.”

I moved into the open space he left between his arms, and he loosely wrapped them around me. “You’re not,” I said softly. I wrapped two arms around his shoulders and cupped his face with my hands. Stroking under his eyes with my thumbs, I looked deep into them. “In here, there’s plenty to see if you know what to look for. They can’t see it, but I can feel it.” I pulled one of his hands up to my chest so it covered my heart. “Here.”

Garjah’s breath hitched. He pressed his lips together, his nostrils flaring. The fear in his eyes, banked since we touched, flared to life. “I c-can’t.”

“Can’t what?”

“I don’t want to think about what they did. The things they made me see, what they said. It was so real.” His hand pressed harder against my chest. “I can feel your heart beating, but they… it wasn’t….”

“They cut you off from our bond. All you had left was pain and rage.”

“All I had left was despair,” he corrected. “If I wasn’t sure Timok had gotten away, I would have given up.”

“So hope was all that kept us both sane.”

Garjah closed his eyes, bowing his head. “I wasn’t hoping to find you alive.” His arms tightened convulsively. “I didn’t know those cells could block a bond. I was so sure you were dead.” His chest heaved. “All I knew was that Timok wouldn’t stop until he got me out, and that if they didn’t kill me outright first, I would hide deep inside. I could break, no matter what they did to shatter my mind, because deep inside where your bond owned my soul, they would never be able to touch that part of me. I knew it would let me rise up and destroy them as soon as they turned their backs on their broken creature.”

He opened his eyes and leaned his head back to look up at me. “I shouldn’t have given up on you.”

I knew I had to help him put this behind him, but how? I wasn’t trained for it. I just wanted to help ease the pain I could still feel inside him. “You didn’t. Not really. You always trusted the bond inside, even if you weren’t sure of why or what it was fueling. Now you have to let go of everything that happened, and we have to make a new plan. One that still takes down the Kardoval.”

Huffing, Garjah cocked his head. “I assume you have a plan?”

Hesitating, I said, “I have… a thought.”

“You have identified a weakness to exploit?”

“Their weakness is your strength.”

“I’m too tired for cryptic mantras.”

“I guess it did sound that way, kind of.” My cheeks heated. “It’s not their weakness I want to exploit, not really.” Glancing out into the corridor since the small room lacked a door, I asked. “Do you never notice how they all look at you? How they look for your guidance and want your approval?”

“No.”

Of course he didn’t. “They revere you, Garjah.”

“Just because the memories I inherited put me in a place to lead the security officers. I represent safety.”

“Trust takes more than someone being good at their job. Trust is earned.” 

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Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 110

 

“Bringing in the Galactic is the last resort,” I said. I frowned at Ases. “You should be the one saying this, not me.” After all, he was the ambassador, and the one who was supposed to be well-versed in politics and creating positive relationships between new species and the Galactic in the first place.

“Maybe.” He shrugged one shoulder. “But I’ve never been forced to flee underground in tunnels carved out by giant bugs, either.” He made a face. I should have known that was at the heart of his true distress. He hadn’t been that upset when we’d been tramping through the trees, finding our way through barely there paths. Up there he’d had the sun, wind, smells and sounds. Here it was stagnant air, dirt, and gloom.

If I was bothered by it, he was probably itching to find a way out and seconds away from shifting the entire time we were down here.

“The Kardoval have to be stopped,” Garjah said. “That they would subvert my own officers in this way and attempt to retain total control and isolation at the cost of the rest of our people is wrong.”

“We’ve been telling you that for some time,” Chaintrik said.

“I know.” Garjah bowed his head to him. “But it takes seeing, and experiencing,” he grimaced, “to believe that those we’ve put our trust and faith in our whole lives are so corrupt.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I am going to take them down.” Garjah stared at me, his nostrils flaring. “You are staying safe.”

“How did that work last time?” I contested hotly. “You left me, and I was attacked. If it wasn’t for Bouncer, Ases, and Chaintrik, I’d have been in a cell next to yours. Or as far away from yours as possible and used against you.”

“Exactly. I’m afraid that would happen if you come with us. You’re safer here.”

I shuddered. “No. Humans are not meant to live underground.” There were two colonies I knew that lived underground, but the planets or stations I’d lived on with my parents that required total environmental isolation had always been pods with built in green spaces. Even those had been a struggle for me. I wasn’t capable of staying underground. “Ases and I both tolerated it to get to you, but we can’t stay here. I want out.”

Chaintrik and Garjah exchanged glances.

“What was that look?”

Chaintrik cocked his head. “There may be a place, but I don’t know if he will be welcome.” He indicated Bouncer. “A cerops is dangerous and could attack and feed on anything they can pierce with their claws, even if it’s bigger than themselves.”

“Have you seen him do that?” I asked. “Even once?”

“No.”

“Exactly. He’s not dangerous to anyone or anything that isn’t dangerous to us.”

“Fine. I’ll see if I can make arrangements.”

 

When we were finally shuffled up and out of the tunnels into the shelter that Chaintrik mentioned, I forgave him for his hesitancy. It was not unreasonable to worry about a strange creature with deadly venom in his claws when you were hiding him among your children.

But they loved him.

It was just after breakfast when we arrived, and I was exhausted. Garjah and I had fallen asleep in a tangle on the bed in the tiny room that we were showed to, and Bouncer had curled up right next to our bed. When I woke up to the sound of laughter—a much higher pitched rumble than the chest sound Garjah made—and looked down, Bouncer was gone.

I was up and out of the room in a flash, but Ases was there in his shifted form with Bouncer and kids barely able to stand on their own two feet to a height nearly as tall as my chest were surrounding them and climbing on them.

“They haven’t had new toys in forever,” someone said, startling me badly. I yelped and my heart started to pound in my chest. I panted, staring with wide eyes at the female next to me. “Sorry,” she grimaced. “I thought you heard me come over.”

“No, I was distracted,” I said waving my hand at the amazing sight in front of us.

“I was too, and scared to death the first time Mellatok grabbed your cerop’s ear to pull herself up. But he just sat there.”

“He is very smart and always knows when someone is out to harm him or us. He’d know if she was just needing help too.” I wasn’t sure how, but cerops raised their young and even kept the juveniles around for a short time during whelping the next generation. I knew he’d had younger siblings before his mother drove him off. He’d probably been climbed on before.

I was more surprised they hadn’t come screaming for us the second they saw her that close to his teeth. Or the youth who was laying with his head between Bouncer’s paws and staring up at his head, giggling each time Bouncer leaned down to sniff his face and blow air over his head. “You aren’t afraid?” I cocked my head and studied her.

“Your friend promised they would be safe before he shifted too.”

Biting my lip, I hesitated. “Bouncer isn’t a shifted person, you know that, right?”

“Yes,” she smiled. “I know what he is. But we were told to trust you by people we trust. And Garjah,” her voice sounded awed. “He would never put our people at risk. He protects everyone, all our people. He could never bring harm to us.”

It never failed to shock me when I talked to someone who viewed Garjah with so much awe. I forgot how most of his planet’s people saw him. How important he was. Maybe there was a way to use that. 

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