Broken Wings (10 page)

No kidding. She wanted to go
home.

Steps tapped from behind him,
announcing the new shadow a second before he appeared.

Raea pushed herself up to sit, wincing
at the moments of throbbing but determined to sit up to get a
better look at her…rescuers?

["Here you are,
again
. Tarin said the
patrols are gone from gold sector. He wants to know what we should
do abou…"]

The second man, also with dark wings,
stared at her, his hair a mess that reminded her of Elis. This one
had the lean look of a boy her age, probably almost ten years
younger than Leksel, who gave the newcomer a dark glare. Either
Leksel was going to hurt him—and he looked more than capable with
those broad shoulders and thick arms—or the lift of his wings meant
he wanted to fly. Probably not the latter. Leksel's wings tightened
to his back a second later. So not the latter. The new guy acted as
if he didn't notice the threat.

Was it warm suddenly or was it her?
The smile on the new guy could have melted the ice on the streets
of McClarron in January.

McClarron. Elis.
What happened to him? She dropped her eyes to the
blanket beneath her. If only he was there with her. Wait. Where was
his coat? She had worn his coat to stay warm while flying. She
didn't even have that much of him.

No, there was something. The
feather.

She reached under the collar of her
shirt. The soft caress of the black feather brushed her fingers,
calming her. Now, that was all she had left.

["Is something wrong?'"] Someone moved
closer. In that tight corner, the dank, stuffy air
shifted.

Huh? Raea looked up. The young guy was
perceptive, and close. Too close. She pulled her legs up to
separate them.

["I'm Cris. It's an honor to meet you,
Keeper Raea. Don't worry. Leks doesn't bite. He's harmless…most of
the time. Don't let him scare you."]

A low growl from the bigger man
contrasted Cris's statement. Leksel sounded pissed.

Okay, he could quit staring, but his
smile reassured her.

She wanted to escape the attention,
though.

["All right. Enough
already."] The woman shoved Cris back. ["Leave the poor girl
alone—"] She looked up with a frown to Leksel.
["
Both
of you.
Until the neutralizer wears off, she still needs her
rest."]

["I was just trying to be friendly."]
Cris rose to his feet and winked at Raea. ["I'll see you later."]
He grabbed Leksel's arms and steered him away. ["Come on. Tarin's
waiting."]

Leksel yanked his arm from Cris's hand
and, after a final look to Raea, followed Cris.

["Men! They'll go out of their way to
impress any pretty face. You're not the first and won't be the
last. Trust me."]

Raea focused on the woman with the
blonde ponytail. Mid-20's perhaps, a slender build and flawless
complexion. Yeah, she could see them hitting on that one too, more
so than herself. ["Who are you?"]

She smiled and offered her cup to
Raea. ["Corsa. Drink this. It'll help with the
headache."]

["Thanks."] Raea sniffed—nothing foul.
In fact, it had a fruity scent. ["What is it?"] Medicine or juice
or poison? For all she knew, they lied to her.

["Tea. Your stomach won't take food
for a while yet."]

Fruit tea? Odd, but she was on a
different world. They didn't seem like they wanted to hurt her, and
she was hungry. Raea took a sip, and grimaced. Definitely not
juice. It was bland like any tea she'd tried. She didn't like tea,
and she didn't like this.

["Drink.
Ronaki
leaves have an
analgesic effect. It's all we have. Medical supplies are limited to
what we can carry. A pouch of
ronaki
doesn't take much space."]

Corsa eyed her like Debbie did when
Raea didn't want to do something that was supposed to be good for
her. By now her aunt must have realized she was gone.

Raea stared at the shimmer
of waves in the cup. Debbie. Elis. Josh.
Everyone
. Would she ever see them
again? Or would she die on Inar'Ahben, alone and afraid?

["Drink."]

Under Corsa's gaze, she drank the tea
a small swallow at a time. Her body numbed with her mind. Just as
well—it numbed the sting of her emotions too. After some time, she
handed the nearly empty cup to Corsa and laid down. Corsa probably
wouldn't let her leave, but Raea didn't know where to go
anyway.

["That's better. Rest a while. You'll
feel better soon."]

["Thanks,"] Raea mumbled. Strange
dreams filled her head a moment later.

Vodin gazed at Salera, his
wings out of sight and his jaw steeled. The muscles of his jaw
flexed and flattened beneath the skin.

["I'm sorry. I didn't
realize…"]

["I told everyone to stay
high. That included you."] Vodin's chest rose and fell with a deep
breath, his eyes hard. ["The safety of everyone on this
ship—yourself included—is my concern. Do you
understand?"]

["Yes."] Her voice wavered
with uncertainty.

Vodin doubted her. The
look he gave her said it. He dropped his eyes and stepped around
her in the room, to a counter of a desk in the corner. ["I don't
think you do. I don't think you fully realize the dangers of this
world. I suppose I should not expect a young girl to appreciate
what we hope to achieve in the time we plan to spend
here."]

She bowed her head. Tears
gleamed from her cheeks.

["Part of that's my fault.
I should have made it a priority that you study our mission, but I
didn't think it important."]

["You want to study the
humans, understand their cultures and languages…and…not expose
us?"] She wiped her cheeks and looked up.

Vodin's eyes softened.
["That's a start."] The edge in his voice melted. ["To achieve our
goals, we need to maintain secrecy. The men and women on the
surface must not be exposed. These humans are primitive and
barbaric. We don't know what they'll do. They may see us as a
threat. A threatened animal will defend
itself…viciously."]

["On the surface? You
reprimand me, but you risk your crew? Humans don't have
wings."]

["No, but neither do
certain Inari, if they don't want to."] He held out his hand. ["I'm
told Crystal Keepers have a sense of the Starfire. Give me your
hand."]

After a few seconds, she
placed her hand in his and gasped. ["
Meistal!
"]

["Yes. All of us. Enough
Starfire in our genes to hide our wings, but no more."]

Salera jerked her hand
away. ["You should've told me."]

["Why? It makes no
difference in my decisions. For the next few days, you'll stay on
board. No flying unaccompanied. Do you understand?"]

She crossed her arms.
["Yes."]

Amusement alighted on the
general's face. ["Next time, trust me when I say to stay
high?"]

["Yes, sir."]She looked
away as the commander appeared in the doorway behind
her.

["Thank you."]

The commander met the
general's eyes and tipped her head a fraction.

Salera stepped past the
commander, who gave her a wary look.

Out of sight, the
commander said, ["You're too easy on her."]

["Four days should be long
enough."]

["For me to finish, but
not to punish a brat like her."]

["I suggest you watch your
tongue."] After a moment, steps cut off with the snick of the
door.

The ache of her shoulder made Raea
shift. Her wings lifted.

Wings?

She opened her eyes to the dim,
pipe-lined nook around her. Where was she?

The answer smacked her
brain with the emotional pain of a sledgehammer:
Inar'Ahben.
Her breath
froze at the onslaught of memories.
Naviketan! We were attacked.
Where was
Nare? Was she there? Where were the men and the woman who greeted
her when she woke last?

She pushed herself up slowly. No
headache. The tea worked as Corsa said it would. In fact, she felt
more rested than she had in a long while. Not since before Pallin
and the nightmares had she slept as well.

Pallin had been Shirukan. He'd used
his looks to charm her into complacency, while Elis tried to warn
her.

She'd said a lot of bad things to
Elis, but he still loved her. She'd been stupid to ignore him. All
this time, she still couldn't accept her feelings for him. Why was
it so hard? Why couldn't she let her heart lead her?

Her own ignorance led to her capture
by the Shirukan again. If only she'd listened to Elis and let him
fly with her and Nare. He was always right.

I was so stupid.
This was her fault, again.

__________

Cris
and Leksel

Voices trickled through the pipe-lined
corridor from around a bend ahead. Raea followed them to a
stadium-sized room of criss-crossing pipes of different alloys and
sizes.

The humidity clung to her like the
steam after a long hot shower, except this was cool and condensed
on pipes.

At the entrance to a large room of
pipes with a high ceiling, she froze and stared. What was this
place? Beneath it all, a dozen Inari of various wing colors sat on
pipes curved or angled around each other or stood in the open
spaces. Light glowed from various fixtures around the
chamber.

["You will not set foot beyond the
boundaries! I don't care how many Shirukan you think you can
disable. Touch one and the rest are alerted of trouble in that
location."] Leksel's wings shifted on his back. He stood a breath
away from Cris, ready to pound him flat by the harshness on his
face and the reprimanding tone. ["Do I make myself
clear?"]

["Sure. Clear."] Cris shrugged. So
nonchalant and unafraid. Was he trying to piss off
Leksel?

What did he do exactly to bring on
Leksel's wrath anyway? Although from her impressions when she first
saw him, Leksel looked ready to snap at anyone who crossed
him.

["Think next time, Cris! Stay out of
sight of any patrols."]

Cris's wings—a shade lighter than
Lekel's—shifted, and he leaned back against a pipe. ["All right. I
get it. Quit taking my draft."]

Leksel's jaw muscles flexed. The
others watched him in dead silence.

Okay.
Note to self—don't get on Leksel's bad side.
Check. She filed the thought away and tried to
slip in unnoticed.

["Hey, cuteness!"] Cris's wings lifted
slightly as he hurried away from Leksel.

She clenched her teeth as Cris ducked
a few pipes to catch her. Using her as a scapegoat from Leksel—so
not a position she wanted. ["Cris, right?"]

["Aw, wow. You remembered."] He
shrugged, his grin stretching wide. ["But I hear Keepers remember
everything."]

Yeah. Everything, whether she wanted
to or not.

Cris stared at her with that grin
growing wider each second. Couldn't he look somewhere else
already?

Okay. This could get annoying. He was
way too cheerful, especially after that scolding from Leksel. And
the others watched them. Leksel's cold stare in particular
disturbed her. ["Unfortunately,"] she muttered, wishing to escape
the attention.

["Did you sleep well?"]

["Yes."] With more visions of a
previous Keeper named Salera; but she couldn't tell him that. She
hardly knew him, or any of them. She could have told Elis; he would
understand. Her chest ached at the thought; she missed him so
much.

A dozen faces watched her. She hated
being the center of attention, especially as an oddity,
because—like it or not—as the only Keeper, and a Crystal Keeper,
she stood out among them.

From around a pipe, Corsa stepped out
with a smile. ["I'm glad to see you up and about. You must be
hungry."] She shot Cris a warning look.

He backed off, but not without a wink
to Raea. ["Catch you later."]

If he thought she was interested, he'd
have an unpleasant surprise. She intended to return home at her
first chance.

Raea glanced back at the others now
talking quietly behind them. ["Did I interrupt
something?"]

Corsa led her across the large
chamber, past Leksel, who tipped his head. Too weird seeing so many
strange people with wings. She'd barely adjusted to her
own.

Yet how cool was it to be on another
world? She was on, or over, Inar'Ahben. Elis was born here, or
somewhere over that world. He grew up there.

What was he doing now? If she knew
what time it was, she could imagine him at home, or them together,
what they would be doing.

Her heart sank from what she
missed.

["A rest only,"] Corsa said. ["Most of
our group patrol the perimeter for Shirukan, although it's only
temporary anyway. Every few nights, we find a new place to hide."]
She ducked beneath a low pipe. ["It keeps us alert and we stay
ahead of the Shirukan patrols."]