Chapter Seven
Elise
We hadn’t been at Kodyn’s fortress for a day, and already we had been plunged into an interrogation and a mock trial.
The men here looked at me like something that was to be devoured, destroyed, and punished for daring to show my human face. These Vithohn didn’t seek females. It didn’t seem like it, anyway. They sought war.
I swallowed hard as Kodyn and I were brought into an interior room, lit up with white lights and fastened with sliding doors. The rooms were sleek and new, and they reminded me of what the world must have been like before the Vithohn take over.
Ordyt, to my surprise, was taken to a large, circular coliseum that sat in the middle of the fortress. We could see him through the open windows in the room we sat in, being held back by Vithohn and never moving to defend himself.
The accusations rang out one after another as various Vithohn lined up to proclaim Ordyt’s guilt to Nadirath.
“He doesn’t react to females,” one said.
“He’s snuck off to the mountains at night with no explanation,” another said viciously.
The looks on their faces ranged from mild vengeance to a seething desire to see Ordyt punished for his crimes. Each face came onto the scene with little regard for the man's wellbeing, each rushing to accuse him.
Their accusations went from mild observances of peculiar behavior to what sounded like outright lies. I could see from the reactions around the room that the Vithohn didn't care whether they were true or not. They had already made up their minds.
Then suddenly there was a face I recognized. Kodyn. He stepped up onto a platform before Nadirath and the ground made a hollow, tinny sound as his boots clamored against it.
“Kodyn,” Nadirath demanded: formal. “You connected with Ordyt, did you not?”
“It was my intention, but I could not make a connection.”
“And you have no reason to lie to the council?” Nadirath asked, and the entire court seemed to hang on his every word: a tense upheaval overtaking the room.
I wondered if he would say that he was good friends with Ordyt: that he didn't wish him any harm and therefore had no reason to lie. I wondered if he actually believed what he was saying. But there was no light behind his eyes. He was completely unreadable to me.
“I do not,” Kodyn said.
“Then what is your assessment?” the tall Vithohn asked, traipsing around the room with purpose.
Nadirath stopped at the windows that overlooked the courtyard where Ordyt was being held down, and I wondered what he was thinking.
“That he is a Kilari,” Kodyn said, and I knew it was coming.
Nadirath gave a small nod, sad but resigned, and then looked around the room at his collection of warriors. They looked hungry for blood: ready for the sentencing.
“And... what punishment will fit this traitor?” Nadirath asked.
Kodyn didn’t hesitate. “Death,” he said.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They shouldn't be locking him up; they should be studying him. If he was really a Kilari, able to take on another form, they should figure out how it was possible to do and how they could identify one in the future.
Kodyn’s words hit the air crisp and clear and the only audible gasp I heard was my own. I looked around with pin-needles of shock rushing through my body like a wave.
They were really going to kill him. Just like that.
An hour later, after the sun had set, I snuck down into the wide-open coliseum and stared through the iron bars that kept me from walking in. I wondered for a moment if I could slide my slender body through the bars, but thought better of it.
My eyes trailed the creature slowly as he sat cross-legged in the center of the ring. He stared back at me, empty, and it unsettled me.
I slipped my hand through the bar and gave him a look of pity. “Hey,” I said quietly, looking around to see if there were any guards nearby.
“You…” he said with some confusion. “Why are you here?”
“I'm not sure, to be honest,” I laughed and waved him over. “I guess I just...”
“You don't understand,” he said, not moving from his spot. It made it irritating and difficult to talk to him in secret: his refusal to come close to the gate. Still, I was game.
“Do you?” I asked, shouting in a whisper. “Does this decision make any sense to you?”
“I am Vithohn,” he confirmed. “So of course I understand why they have chosen my sentence. Vithohn do not compromise their people. It's why your people are having such a hard time getting them to ally.”
I shifted uncomfortably. “The Vithohn seek women. It's not actually that hard to get them to sign a treaty.”
“Ah,” he said, raising a long, scaly finger to the air. “But how many mate with a female and then leave, instead of joining your army?”
I thought about it, leaning against the doorframe just outside the bars. I kicked a rock beneath my feet and shrugged. He was right. Some Vithohn became obsessed with the females and vowed to stay with them, which usually meant joining our militia. But other times, the two would just run off together, both refusing to betray their people.
“I guess you have a point,” I said stubbornly.
“Kodyn left,” he said. “Left with a girl for that very reason.”
“Is that right?” I asked, more of a statement than a question.
“The men here tried to kill her out of their own desire. The Vithohn pursued her; she fought with them. He couldn't stand them looking at her any longer, but she wouldn't go back to the humans. It is how I know he does not love you,” he said so evenly that it made my knees buckle.
“How’s that?” I asked, clearly offended.
He didn’t love me?
The phrase rang through my head over and over.
“Because he brought you into the fortress,” he said quickly. “Into danger.”
I gave a long pause and then stood upright again, still feeling shaky. “Maybe he believed I could take care of myself. Ever think of that?”
“No,” Ordyt said, sure of himself.
I decided I wanted to ignore him then and sighed, changing the subject. “So then, he didn't betray the Vithohn, so much as he was protecting his lover.”
“No... He did not betray the Vithohn,” he finally agreed. “Only me, it seems.”
“Ordyt, please, tell me why you didn't defend yourself? What did he see when you connected?”
He shook his head, still so far away. “I don’t know,” he said slowly: emotionless. “But if Kodyn sees fit to put me to death, then something must be wrong.”
I set my jaw. “That's the most absurd display of submission I have ever seen. I get that you're being loyal, but come on.”
“Why do you care so much?” he asked, finally stirring from his spot.
He stood from the center of the courtyard and seemed so incredibly tall all of the sudden.
“I guess I just... that's just not how we do things. What are you going to do? Let them tear you apart?” I scoffed. “Because that’s what they’re going to do.”
He approached the cage and gave me a look that unsettled me more than anything else: it made me sweat. He looked resigned to his punishment. I was sure he was wondering why I was concerning myself. I didn’t even know him, after all. Why I hadn’t asked if he was guilty.
Then, in a final brush-off he said, “I will do whatever they see fit,” and turned away from me.
I grit my teeth, pissed at his indifference to death. Fine then, I thought, go ahead and die.
I walked down the bright corridors leading back to the sleeping quarters, back to Kodyn, and could see the figure of a Vithohn just ahead of me. I recognized it as Nadirath right away. He turned his profile to me, hearing my footsteps behind him, and I quickly announced myself.
“It’s Elise,” I said.
Apparently, I was ready to talk to everyone tonight.
“Off exploring, are we?” he said, bemused as he stopped walking, waiting for me to catch up to him.
I nodded. “Yeah, sorry.”
“No need,” he waved me off. “Let our temple be yours. Might I ask why you were consorting with our prisoner?”
“I'm sorry,” I said, unenthusiastically. “I guess I just don't understand what happened.”
“No, you don't,” he responded as we walked. His tone wasn’t harsh or judgmental. It was simple. And he was right, I supposed. I didn’t understand.
“I don't see what everyone else see’s,” I said.
“Nor do I,” Nadirath breathed and looked back over to me, his eyes roaming around my body. He stopped at an open window: a thickly barred opening with no screen that let in the cool night breeze. “But, I trust Kodyn. If he says Ordyt is not to be trusted, that he is not one of us, then that is what we have to believe.”
I set my hand on the bar in front of me and let the moisture of it run slick down my palm. I tried to bite my tongue, but because I am me, I couldn’t.
“Not being one of you and not being trusted aren't necessarily the same things,” I tested.
“You are right,” he said.
He followed my lead, setting his long fingers around the thick black bars of the window and leaning into the fresh air. “But that is not something I can convince my people of. Believe me; I wish things were different.” He looked around then, furtive. “Ordyt and I…”
“Close?” I finished.
He remained stoic, gripping the bar hard suddenly. “It's not safe to say anymore.” He shrugged. “I trust no one will rush to his defense.”
I let go of the window, instead turning to lean my back on the bars and momentarily feeling like I might fall back and let the wind take me.
“That’s sad,” I said.
“Still... if Kodyn says,” he said evenly.
“What if he’s wrong?” I asked: dared. “Didn't you ever try and connect with Ordyt? See what you felt?”
“I can’t do that,” Nadirath said in a tone that was unreadable. If he were jealous or amused, I couldn’t tell. “Kodyn is a born Exerott, not me. And I can't see any reason why he would lie about it. Can you?”
I shrugged and looked up at him, finally meeting his eyes. “No.”
He swallowed and moved closer to me, inspecting me. “I hesitate to have you here, Elise. The humans are our sworn enemies.” He paused because he knew how uncomfortable he’d just made things.
“Are you bothered? I mean… nobody’s going to get hurt by little old me.”
He rolled his shoulders and raised both brows, considering it. “I… am not bothered. We’ve long ago understood we hadn’t yet wiped out you humans.”
I licked my lips and began to feel pointedly uncomfortable. Was he saying that one day he hoped to wipe us all out?
“It's not safe here for you,” he said lowly. “But if you are not bothered then neither are we. We don't fear you.”
“Have you...” I paused to consider my words. “Do you still feel the pull?
He looked my body up and down again, sexually enticed suddenly as he ran a hand down my cheek. “But I'm trying to be a gentleman.”
“Thanks,” I laughed. “I don't know what that must be like but—”
“Elise,” came Kodyn’s voice, calling down the hall. He looked at me, incredulous, eyes wide and furious. There was an expression covering his face that I could only peg as jealousy and it made my stomach lilt. I swallowed like a child in trouble and gave a half smile to Nadirath.
“Gotta go,” I said to the tall Vithohn, shrugging my way down the hall to Kodyn.
We walked back to his room in silence, him grabbing me by the arm and tugging me forward. Finally, I lurched away from him and ripped my hand from his grasp.
“What?” I snapped.
He gave me a piercing stare, and his mouth gaped when I yelled. He shoved me into the room, and I felt all the more irritated, like I had ‘disobeyed’ him.
“What are you doing?” he asked, clearly irritated.
“A common question tonight,” I breathed out slowly. “I’m not some property you can just lead around,” I snapped.
“No, you are my guest, and you’re under my charge. Now, what were you doing?”
I searched his room for anything to distract myself with, but he followed my eyes and stepped in front of me. “I was... I went to the prison,” I said with a casual ‘I dunno’ shrug.
“Why?”
“Because!” I fumed. “I don't understand what the hell happened out there. You all just ganged up on him and what... you're going to kill him instead of studying him?”
He bit his lip and closed his eyes, taking a moment to see things from my point of view, hopefully.
“He's a traitor, Elise,” he snapped.
“You don't know that!” I laughed in frustration and threw my hands in the air, walking to the open window and staring out at the millions of stars that were crystal clear from his tower.
“I know,” he said forcefully. “I felt it.”
“He was your friend! And then you just…” I cringed, recalling their interaction. “He begged for mercy,” I said, as though that sentence alone made me the winner of our argument.
“I won't let mercy stand in the way of saving my people. Elise, stay out of this,” he warned.
‘You don't even know what could happen if he is one of them! What if the Kilari are tracking him now? What if you kill him and they swarm the base, or he infects you guys somehow? You're doing your whole base a giant disservice.”
“I brought you here to help your cause, no questions asked!” he shouted, his tone falling flat at the end. Then he went calm again and offered me pleading eyes. “I expect the same in return.”
My heart sank at that, and he turned away from me before I could continue our argument. He seemed defeated somehow.
It was a strange sensation because usually I loved winning. But he turned from me and walked toward the bed in our circular room, and I felt rotten.
I sat in the chair by the door with my legs pulled up to my chest. My entire body could fit on that oversized chair. It felt amazing to have something so plush cushioning around me: not like the ratty old hotel we were staying at.
The entire room was black, with only the light from the stars peeking into the room. It felt like hours before I finally crawled back into Kodyn’s bed.
I came in on all fours and found his arm, snaking myself under it like a cat.
To my surprise, he was still awake. I looked up at him and could sense the emotion in his voice as he whispered, “He is a Kilari. I know it. I wish he wasn’t, but he is.”
“Okay,” I said and quickly whispered, “But, how do you know?”
“Fiona told me.”
I swallowed but said nothing. The scanner he'd stolen... was this all part of it? Why had he been content to let Ordyt live up until now if he’d known all along?
I felt myself falling in love with Kodyn. It was undeniable. But I found myself wondering if he would ever let down his walls or if he would ever trust me enough to give me the answers I needed.
The next morning the Vithohn gathered in the courtyard, corralled together by a lust for violence and blood. There, in the early hours of the morning, forty Vithohn flooded the courtyard and ripped Ordyt apart, piece by piece. They tore his flesh, and the Voth shot him with their energy beams. The rest of them pulled muscle from bone with their tentacles.
Ordyt never fought back, and I couldn’t think of one good reason why I cared so much. But I did