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Wednesday Briefs: Ancalagon Ch. 124

 

“Oh look, there’s some of those plants. The ones with the sindranth.” I crouched, wanting to study the tiny organisms that had ultimately been responsible for so much change in my life.

I was yanked backward off my feet, pulled against Garjah’s thick chest.

“Ow! Stars!”

Bouncer growled, jumping down out of a tree he’d been prowling through, his head swinging back and forth.

“It was him,” I said, jabbing a finger over my shoulder and into the meaty muscle I was captured by. Bouncer growled but Garjah huffed at him so he stalked off. “That stuff is dangerous,” Garjah said.

“I wasn’t about to touch it again.” This time I recognized the odd pattern of holes and the dark movement. “Plus I have much better equipment, remember?” I’d given up my human exosuit, sort of necessary since I had denser body tissue and a whole extra set of limbs.

Their technology was better for many things. Not everything they did was better, though.

“Still. It is my job to keep you safe.”

I turned in Garjah’s arms. Well, I squirmed until he let me turn in his arms. I wrapped two arms around his neck and looked up. “Your job is to keep everyone else safe. Species liaison for security.”

“Seedrah will do well in my old role. I will stay with you, and I will keep you safe while we patrol.”

Patrol also meant I’d have a lot of chances to make new discoveries. Not once had we been separated since he came to get me from the building where the Kardoval had been really hidden. I think he finally got that we were stronger, and safer, together than apart. “I think the people were quite upset that you didn’t want to either take on the role of leadership or stay there as the head of security.”

“I oversaw the process the Aqnars suggested. It was a novel concept.” That was an understatement.

“Allowing those with qualifications to be nominated by people and then holding a vote? It is one that has its roots in antiquity. Many civilizations have used a similar governing process, including humans.” I shrugged. It would take time for his culture to overcome their dependence on their memories, and the rigid cast into roles, to be comfortable with it. “It works, sometimes. And limiting the terms and conditions, and having different levels like the security forces be under a different leadership helps prevent their total control.”

“That is true.”

No one would ever hold supreme power over Garjah’s people again. There had been even more demonstrations, speeches, and rallies held when the news was released about what the Kardoval had done. Most against the Kardoval, but… not all. Some had been led against me and many were outcries against Bouncer, despite the fact he’d only been protecting me.

Cerops didn’t belong among them, they said.

In the end, I would never have been safe to live on the planet safely. We’d have been hounded every time we went into the public. Despite how much they all revered Garjah, Bouncer scared people and I refused to live without him. Besides, while I enjoyed exploring his planet, Ardra still called my name.

The agreement in place to share the planet meant I could explore it and send my reports back to the Galactic Institute. Garjah was still doing his duty to his people. He was patrolling their edges.

And Bouncer was ecstatic. He’d changed since we brought him home. He’d always been close to me, to both of us, but this was different.

Sometimes I thought he’d challenge Garjah if he didn’t love him so much. Then they’d spend time wrestling around on the ground and end up in a pile of limbs panting with identical grins.

“Are you sure this is the life you want?” I asked Garjah.

“It is. I have you, Bouncer, my friends, and even yours.”

Ases stayed behind to do his duty as the ambassador, but he commed us frequently.Timok came with us. I wasn’t sure if I was happy about that or not. In the end, all I really needed or wanted was Garjah and Bouncer in my life.

“Is this the life you want?” He stroked his hands down my back, his hands tangling with the extra pair I never expected to have.

“Always.”

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Julie Lynn Hayes 

Wednesday Briefs Ancalagon Ch. 123

 

Had this been a set up? The officer had brought me into a trap and delivered me to the Kardoval? I slumped to the floor, my body no longer my own to control but my mind whirred uncontrollably through the many different options of what went wrong.

How was this possible? Had I been duped or had Garjah?

It had to have been me. He was too smart, too well trained to have fallen for such a simple trap that he’d believe he had captured the Kardoval if he hadn’t. Had Timok even been with him, or had all that simply been a name drop to distract me from the story so I wouldn’t question it as much.

Damn it. I strained to move, to do something, anything to save myself. I couldn’t even blink away the tears that were pooling in my eyes and starting to drip down my cheeks, much to my fury.

Another burst of fire, and the officer who had brought me up landed in my line of sight, but his eyes were empty. He’d either been duped alongside me, or he’d been in on their plan but no further use to them.

The Kardoval were clearly not trying to remain the benevolent rulers in the eyes of their people anymore.

“Grab him and let’s go before Garjah finds us.”

 

Someone grabbed me and hoisted me over their shoulders. I hated the feeling of someone else’s hands on me, and they smelled rancid, sweat and something else bitter making me gag helplessly. My arms dangled, and my head throbbed. The lift dinged.

The roar filled the space. My ears rang, but I knew that sound. Screams and cursing broke out, and I noticed helplessly that there had to be at least five people here. Bouncer’s snarls were somehow louder than their shouts or the thuds of bodies hitting the floor.

Including mine, as I hit the ground in a heap. Sharp pain spiked through one arm, and my head slammed into the floor and bounced. Tears blurred what I could see, and a groan escaped me but I couldn’t make any other sound. Pain throbbed between my arm and head, and someone was shooting, and all I wanted to do was yell at Bouncer to run away.

He yelped, and I strained against whatever they’d put in me to immobilize me. I really, really hated this, and I wanted nothing more than to be able to move, to help Bouncer, to fight back. Focusing all my energy, I was only able to turn my head, scraping it across rough carpet.

Relief flooded me. Bouncer wasn’t laying on the floor dying from a wound from the shots I heard. He was standing over Mereval, one of her arms in his mouth and his claws dug into her upper shoulders. She was screaming, and he was pulling her over, ducking behind her body when someone tried to aim at him.

Then the lift opened again, and more people flooded the room. Cold fear that it was someone coming to help the Kardoval and finish killing us struck me first, but then I recognized one of the officers and one of the rebels.

The last person out of the lift was Garjah, and he went insane when he saw me on the floor. Lifting his weapon, he took out the two males threatening me and Bouncer with lethal efficiency and then he was on his knees next to me.

“Essell, are you okay?”

I couldn’t answer him, and that only made him more frantic.

“Essell!”

Tears flooded my eyes, and I blinked rapidly. Blinking. I stared into Garjah’s eyes, and blinked twice, as hard as I could.

“Essell, can you understand me?” I blinked again, hard. Garjah yanked me against his chest, both our breaths heaving as he realized I was not dying, and I realized I wasn’t about to be taken prisoner somewhere and tortured or something worse.

Bouncer came and pushed his head between us, his muzzle wet with fluids I didn’t want to think about. Then again, he saved me. If I could have, I would have hugged him tight. Garjah did it for me. “You saved him, didn’t you? Wonderful beast that you are, yes.” Garjah stroked him and scratched right behind his ear, and Bouncer closed his eyes and rumbled, leaning hard against us.

The room was chaos around us, but Garjah let his men handle it. Stuck in my body and unable to do anything else, I was glad he wasn’t letting me go. There was nowhere else I wanted to be until the drugs wore off.

 

“Well, that’s that.” Timok came out of the lift to where we were sitting down on the bottom floor.

I was still cradled against Garjah, feeling and movement slowly coming back to my body. “What?” I slurred.

“Bouncer killed the Kardoval,” he said bluntly. “Every last one of them is either dead from having their throats bit out or are dying from the poison of his claws.”

“That’s painful, isn’t it?” I said. That’s what Garjah had said, and why everyone was so afraid of him.

“It is.” Timok looked grimly satisfied. “They have confessed all their crimes, on record, before their end so we will have that when your outworlders come, though.”

I tilted my head, and it went too far, hitting Garjah on the chest. He grunted. “Why would they do that?” he asked.

“Because I wouldn’t give them any pain relief unless they did.” Timok was ruthless, even more than I even knew.

But it worked. 

Want more flash?

Julie Lynn Hayes