It is far away. We might have a chance.
I hope we do.
I do not feel strong or capable.
As a matter of fact, my insides are jelly and my legs are rubber.
Still, I try to keep my voice level as my gaze slips to Mina.
“They’re here too,” I whisper. “Fer’ro and two others.”
Fuck. Mina looks even worse than when I’d left her not long before.
“She’s unconscious,” Sam whispers and I nod.
We can survive this.
We’ll be fine.
I try to believe in those words as I somehow sense Fer’ro behind me.
I don’t know how, but when I turn and look up, there he is and behind him is the burgundy-eyed one and San’ten.
San’ten.
“What’s he doing here?” My voice quivers a little as I glance from San’ten to Fer’ro.
Fer’ro clicks something at him and San’ten steps forward. His gaze is not on me…it is on Mina.
“I will not harm the female,” he says, but even as he speaks, the darkness spikes around him a little as his suit reacts. He growls in his throat and his suit flattens again. “I give you my oath.”
I gulp as I glance back at Fer’ro. He’s the only one I trust, but there’s no time for deliberation on this.
There’s another distant thump and I know the orb is one step closer to our location.
If it finds us…I know we are dead.
Fer’ro is clicking again…but it sounds different.
Lower.
Deeper.
He’s not looking at us either. His gaze is focused somewhere in the darkness ahead.
Burgundy Eyes replies and so does San’ten.
What follows is a sharp series of clicks and Fer’ro’s lips pull back as his gaze suddenly shoots to me.
His anger isn’t directed at me though, somehow I can sense that, but whatever they are talking about obviously has all their emotions rising.
Fer’ro ends the conversation with a sharp click and I’m left glancing from one to the other.
I have no idea what’s about to happen now.
“Ga’Var will take the tiny one,” he finally says.
“Who?”
“They are all tiny,” Burgundy Eyes says, but he moves toward Sam.
“Oh, you’re talking about m—me?” There’s a tremor in Sam’s voice and we hear another distant thump that makes her shiver beside me. “My name is Sam.”
Ga’Var doesn’t respond. He simply reaches down and grasps her. Sam stifles a yelp as she’s lifted as if she weighs nothing.
Fer’ro reaches for me at the same time.
“Take her where? Where are we going?” As I ask this, my eyes are on Mina.
San’ten reaches for her and alarm goes through me. But he simply lifts her limp body toward his chest.
He’s all darkness but there’s a snarl on his face. I can see his white teeth in the dark.
I hesitate as Fer’ro lifts me.
“He will not harm her,” Fer’ro speaks low near my ear before lifting his head once more.
“We go away from here,” Fer’ro says before clicking a command to his friends. “We leave. We hide.”
FER’RO
Adee’ra is against my chest and I can feel every beat of her blood organ.
Her fear scent is almost overpowering but I hardly notice it now.
Every instinct within me is focused on the great danger in our midst.
The Scrit is steadily approaching…and we are running toward it.
I don’t think Adee’ra realizes this yet, but it is the way we have to go.
The Gryken is not likely to return from whence it came. Safety is behind, not in front.
Keeping to the trees, we move quickly over the surface and I sense the big machine around me even before I catch sight of it once more.
Every symbiote on my being bristles.
Ga’Var growls his frustration but we cannot attack.
Not yet.
Our ship is not ready to.
And so, we will have to let the Scrit go. We will have to watch it walk away while hiding like cowards.
Small hands grip me and I glance down at the hyu’man in my arms as we move.
Her wide eyes are focused far ahead. Her gaze rising to the Scrit.
Her chest heaves in distress.
“You’re heading the wrong way!” She grips me tighter. “It’s in front of us!”
There is no time to explain as I slow down, my gaze darting around to find a good spot.
There’s a little area that’s without many flora.
“Fer’ro,” she’s staring at me now, “tell me you know what you’re doing.”
Her gaze is frantic as I put her down so she’s laying on the ground, back against the dead leaves.
The Scrit sounds again; its warning call.
It senses the hyu’mans.
But it doesn’t sense us.
“Adee’ra,” her name slides off my tongue easily, as if I have been saying it for eons. Her breathing staggers as she stares up at me. “Do you trust me?”
Off to the side close by, Ga’Var and San’ten are also putting their hyu’mans down.
“Are you leaving us?” she asks and I cannot read the look in her eyes. “Are you leaving us here?”
The Scrit sounds again and trees split and break as the ground shakes far too close to our location.
It will be right above us soon.
“I’m about to do something that might…terrify you.” I sense her fear rising but I continue. “Do not raise an alarm. It already knows you are here.”
At my last line, her blood organ palpitates.
There is no more time.
I only see her eyes widen as I settle over her and the shroud covers us.
Suddenly, the world around us is no more.
The dark sky, the trees, my brethren close by…everything disappears.
We are…cocooned.
Adee’ra glances around but she doesn’t move. “What is this? What’s happening?”
“Hiding,” I say. “It will not sense us like this.”
The ba’clan thin a little so I can see and the moment the Scrit comes into view above us, a breath hitches in Adee’ra’s throat.
My ba’clan bristle but keep their form around us.
It has been a while since I’ve had this sort of view. Small and looking up at the terror towering above us.
I am reminded of just how mighty the Gryken make themselves appear.
The shiny orb hovers above as it raises one of its legs and for a moment, the light of the stars is blocked out as the leg descends.
It’s coming straight at us.
“Fer’ro!”
The earth shakes, shockwaves going through it as the leg slams down around us and Adee’ra grips me, her small hands digging into my skin.
Her eyes are the widest I have ever seen them as she stares at the leg that’s now beside us.
We are in between its claws. So close.
If I stretch, I can touch it.
But I am not focused on that.
What catches my attention is the sudden silence.
The Scrit is not moving.
The ridges across my body are slowly rising as the seconds tick by.
The Gryken should not be able to sense us. They can sense the hyu’mans but now all three are protected by our ba’clan.
In the last days of the war, it had been by mere chance that a Vullan child had somehow removed its energy signature as a Scrit had approached.
It is a useful effect of the ba’clan, one we discovered far too late, one that might have saved us if we had discovered it earlier.
Now, I am praying it saves the last few beings alive on this planet.
But the Scrit is still standing still.