Chapter Twelve

 

"Are you sure you have to go so soon?" Ty groaned from the bed.

"Yes," Samira called to him from the bathroom where she was collecting her clothes from the floor, "I have to go back to my house and change before people catch onto the fact that I've been wearing the same thing since the morning after I got here."

Ty chuckled.

"You aren't going to stay there tonight are you?" he asked.

She stepped into the room and smiled at him.

"If I have my way, I'll never stay there again."

Ty crawled to the end of the bed and rested his hands on her hips so he could pull her close and kiss her.

"I'll tell the king and queen that they can consider that house vacant."

She grinned and kissed him again, lingering on his lips for a few moments before pushing him away as his hands started to travel to her breasts.

"Not now, Big Boy. We have things to do."

The statement was meant playfully, but it fell hard in Ty's gut. They had only slept for a few hours because they knew that the rest of the clan would be making their preparations and that every moment mattered. Suddenly he realized he hadn't even gotten a chance to ask her about what had happened in Ciyrs' office the night before.

"Did you figure out the healing potion?" he asked, climbing out of bed and heading for his bureau.

Her face lit up.

"I think we are really close. I suggested that we integrate some of the slime into the potion kind of like on Earth when doctors use small amounts of germs and viruses to create vaccinations. It gives the body the opportunity to learn to fight off that particular infection. I thought that maybe if we put the slime into the potion, it could counteract injuries and trigger the warriors' bodies to fight harder, speeding up their healing and protecting them from further injuries and reactions."

"Wow. You really are incredibly brilliant."

She flashed him a huge smile.

"That's what they tell me. Get dressed while I run to my house and change. I'll meet you at Ciyrs' shop."

 

An hour later Ty was walking up to the shop when he heard shouting. He started running, fear flooding him. When he burst into the shop, however, he saw that everyone was grinning and hugging each other.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"We think we figured out the healing potion," Ciyrs told him, "Thanks to your amazing mate, we are really ready for this showdown."

Ty crossed to Samira and kissed her.

"You are amazing," he agreed.

"What do we do now?" Pyra asked from where he stood against one wall, his hand rested protectively over Eden's belly.

The room fell quiet for a moment.

"We need to figure out who was helping Ullie," Samira said, "And I think that means going back to the tunnel."

"No," Ty said, "It was too dangerous the first time. You can't go again."

"We have to, Ty. There's no other way. I have been thinking about this a lot, and I am convinced that there is something about that tunnel that we don't know. It still doesn't make any sense that we only walked for what seemed like such a short time and then got so far away."

"Do you think there is some kind of portal or transporter in the tunnel?" Zuri asked.

"There might be. You said that the Klimnu have incredibly advanced technology on their original planet. What if they brought some of it here and put it in the tunnel so that they and whoever has been helping them can use it to get them to different areas of the planet more quickly?"

"If that underground forest that you found is some kind of Klimnu bunker, but they aren't the ones using the tunnel, how are they getting into it?"

Ty saw Samira's face get tense again like she was thinking through something complicated.

"I have a theory. It is outlandish, but it's all I have right now."

"Tell us."

Samira turned to Ty.

"Last night I had the warriors tell me everything about the Klimnu. What they are, where they come from, what they do, everything. Something that stood out to me was that they have the ability to look like something else when they want to confuse or manipulate people."

"That's right," Eliana said, "They did that to me."

"Me, too," said Leia.

"Me, too," said Eden.

Samira nodded at them.

"Zuri, I need you to show me exactly where you encountered that Klimnu. I can explain the rest once we get there."

The group left the shop and hurried toward the woods at the edge of the compound. When they got there, Samira looked around.

"Is this how you got to the prison that you burned down?" she asked.

The warriors confirmed that it was and Ty saw a smile starting to form on her lips.

"Look, Zuri. Look around you."

Zuri looked around for a few seconds and when her eyes dropped to the floor, Ty saw them grow wide.

"It's an inverse," she muttered.

Samira nodded.

"A reflection." She turned to Leia, "Leia, do you see it?"

Leia followed the same path with her eyes that Zuri did and suddenly a hand flew to her mouth.

"I don't understand," Ty said.

"Neither do I," Pyra added.

Samira gestured at the trees.

"These are the trees from the underground forest." She pointed to branches overhead and the patchy leaves, "Those are what we saw as roots with bits of undergrowth around them. What we thought was water was the sky. And this," she leaned down and touched the thick moss and undergrowth that covered that section of the forest floor, "This is what we saw as the leaves that created the ceiling."

"It's a reflection," Pyra repeated what the women had said and Samira nodded, "What you thought you were seeing was wrong, but you were seeing something that was really there."

"Yes."

"That means," Zuri said, crouching down to touch some of the moss. She ran her hand across it for a moment, and then suddenly pulled it back, "Ero, could you pull this up for me?"

"Pull up the moss?" Ero asked.

"It shouldn't be difficult. Grab this edge and pull."

Ero did as he was asked and as soon as he pulled on the edge of the moss, it peeled away from the ground, revealing a narrow gouge in the ground shining around the edges with thick, clear slime.