Chapter 12
Piwaka stopped at the base of a huge tree. “This is Aquilla’s tree. You’ll find Penelope Ann at the top.”
Emily looked around. “How will I get up there?”
“Climb,” he told her.
Emily studied the trunk and found handholds carved into the wood. Or were they natural features of the bark? “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Faruk put out his hand to touch the trunk, but Piwaka blocked him with his staff. “Only the human can go up.”
Faruk’s eyes blazed. “Where Emily goes, I go.”
Piwaka shook his head. His eyes gleamed. “No. It is forbidden. She came to find her sisters. She will go alone.” He cocked his head the other way. “Unless you have a human sister to find also?”
Faruk narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t answer.
“It’s all right, Faruk,” Emily told him. “I’ll go alone.”
“This is a bad idea,” Faruk muttered.
Chris stepped forward. “What about me? I’m human, too.”
Piwaka shook his head. “No.”
Emily raised her hand to her friends. “It’s all right. I’ll go. I’m the one who wants to see them so badly.”
“What if they decide to keep you here?” Faruk asked. “We might not find you again.”
Emily surveyed the border guards. “I don’t think there’s much chance they’ll want to keep us.”
“If they change their minds about you,” Turk growled, “they could kill us all.”
Emily cast a glance at Piwaka. “They would have done that already if they were going to. He brought me here to ask Penelope Ann about my sisters. I’ll go up and see what she says. Then we’ll go back to Lycaon territory.”
Faruk touched her hand. “Don’t be too long.”
She would have kissed him then and there if Piwaka hadn’t been watching and listening with his head on one side. He blinked at her like a bird, but his eyes sparkled in a way that made her think he might be a kind person underneath his Captain of the Guard exterior.
She put her hand into the first handhold and took a firm grip. “I’ll be back soon.”
She didn’t give herself a chance to hesitate, and once she started climbing, she refused to look down. She learned that much about climbing in search and rescue. She kept her gaze fixed on the treetop above her. What she would find up there, she could only guess. Every step of her journey brought her to this moment.
Her legs and arms burned with the effort of climbing. The solid canopy of trees overhead came closer, but still a great stretch of trunk separated her from the top. She paused more than once to catch her breath and rest her muscles before pushing on.
After what seemed like hours of climbing, she could make out a shape in the treetop above her. A dark mass of branches clumped among the foliage, and when she struggled higher, she recognized it as a little house. Her heart rate quickened, and she climbed faster. Nearer the top, she spotted a head looking down at her over the balcony railing. Blonde hair hung down on either side of it.
The ache in her muscles disappeared and she smiled up at the face, but the face didn’t smile back. It peered down at her as though it had never seen a human being before, but the closer she came, the more certain Emily became that the face was human and female. She pulled herself up to the balcony and threw her leg over the railing.
The woman stood back and regarded her. “You aren’t from the transport, are you?”
Emily stared at her. “Are you Penelope Ann?”
The woman cocked her head. “Who told you that?”
Emily gestured down toward the ground. “Piwaka told me I would find you here. He said this was your tree.”
Penelope Ann glanced over the railing again. “You brought Ursidreans and Lycaon here with you. You shouldn’t have done that. Aquilla won’t like it. Piwaka shouldn’t have let them cross the border.”
“There’s only one Lycaon and one Ursidrean,” Emily told her. “He let them cross because they came here to help me. We heard that my sisters came to you, and Piwaka says you know all the human women who came to the Avitras.”
“That’s true,” Penelope Ann replied. “But I don’t help the Ursidreans or the Lycaon. They’re our enemies.”
“You won’t be helping them,” Emily told her. “You’ll be helping me.”
Penelope Ann shrugged. “Who are your sisters?”
“Frieda and Anna Evans,” Emily replied.
Penelope Ann started to say something when a shadow crossed the door of the house. A familiar voice startled them. “Emily! What are you doing here?”
Emily whirled around. A tall woman with straight brown hair bouncing off her shoulders came to the door. “Anna!”
The sisters rushed into each other’s arms. They held each other and wouldn’t let go for a long time. Penelope Ann watched them without saying anything. Anna took hold of Emily’s hands. “Come inside. You must be famished.”
Emily let her sister guide her into the house and sit her on a low seat by the window. Anna put a wooden dish into her hands, but Emily didn’t look at the food. Her eyes devoured her long-lost sister. “You don’t know how good it is to see you again. I was worried sick about you. How did you get here?”
“Maybe you heard,” Anna replied. “The factions have been sending word from all over Angondra to the Lycaon, asking for the women from Earth to come to them. All the factions are desperate for reproductive females. This planet is in serious danger.”
Emily nodded. “I heard. So you walked here all the way from Lycaon territory? That must have been hard.”
“Not alone,” Anna replied. “The Lycaon warriors escorted us to the border. Then the Avitras border guards brought us here and Penelope Ann took care of us until we settled in. She’s been an angel to us.”
Emily shot Penelope Ann a sidelong glance. She stood to one side and observed the sisters together with a distant, passionless expression. Emily turned back to her sister. “Do you have a mate yet? Have you found a home and family here with the Avitras?”
“Not yet,” Anna replied. “Penelope Ann let me stay here until I find a more permanent home, but I haven’t settled where I’m going to go or what I’m going to do.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of men who would be delighted to have you,” Emily remarked.
Anna shrugged. “There’s no rush. On Angondra, it’s the females who pick their mates. The men wait until a woman picks them.”
Emily lowered her eyes. “I know.”
“What about you?” Anna asked. “You look wonderful. I haven’t seen you so healthy and happy since you quit search and rescue.”
Emily couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Maybe it’s all the hiking I’ve been doing out in these mountains. I was in a coma in the Ursidrean infirmary for six months. Then I decided to find you, Frieda and Aimee. Faruk—I mean, the border patrol medic who found me....”
“Found you where?” Anna interrupted.
Emily took a deep breath. “When the Romarie ship broke up in the atmosphere, I was thrown out. I landed in Ursidrean territory, and Faruk found me and brought me back to the city. He saved my life.”
Anna stared at her. “I can see that.”
Emily blushed. “After I was well enough, he agreed to take me to the Lycaon border so I could find out what happened to you. That’s where I met Chris and Turk.”
“Who are they?” Anna asked.
“Turk is the twin brother of Caleb, the Lycaon Alpha,” Emily replied. “Chris is his human mate. They took me to the Lycaon village, where I found Aimee. She told me you and Frieda were here.”
Anna nodded. “Aimee sure has changed.”
Emily looked around. “Where’s Frieda?”
Anna glanced at Penelope Ann. “That’s the thing. We don’t know.”
Emily started. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
Anna shifted in her seat. “Frieda disappeared two days ago. One minute, she was standing on the balcony of our friend Tea’s house. The next minute, I turned around and she was gone. We don’t know what happened to her. Piwaka and his guards searched the whole territory, but they never found any trace of her. They never found even a footprint on the ground.”
Emily frowned. “That’s not possible.”
Anna nodded. “I know. That’s what we all thought. At first, we thought she must have fallen off the balcony. It takes time to develop the balance and coordination to live up here without falling. But if she had fallen, we would have found her either in the branches under the balcony or on the ground. She was nowhere. They never found even a drop of blood under that balcony.”
Emily shook her head. “This is impossible. She can’t have just evaporated into thin air.”
“Believe me,” Anna told her. “No one is more mystified by this than we are. The Avitras are the most concerned about it of anybody. They would do anything to find out where Frieda is.”
Emily jumped to her feet. “We have to find her.”
Anna pulled her back down. “The best people to find her are already searching for her. That’s why Aquilla isn’t here. He’s mustering all his guards to find her. If you want to find out what happened to her, you should stay here with me. The minute they find anything, they’ll relay the information back here and we’ll be the first to hear it.”
Emily sat down next to her sister with a heavy sigh.
“We’ll find you a place to spend the night,” Anna told her. “You don’t have to go back to the Ursidreans. Stay here with me.”
Penelope Ann spoke up for the first time. “You can’t stay here. If Aquilla finds out you brought an Ursidrean here, he’ll kill your whole party. He can’t stand those hairy beasts.”
Emily stiffened. “The Ursidreans are not hairy beasts. I could say the Avitras are feathered freaks.”
Penelope Ann clenched her teeth, but before she could answer, Anna laid her hand on Emily’s arm. “We’re together now. You can tell your friends you don’t need their help anymore. You can stay here with us.”
Emily got to her feet again. “I’m sorry, Anna. I wish I could stay with you, but I promised Faruk I would come back. My place is with the Ursidreans now. If we aren’t welcome here, we’ll go back to our own territory. I know Turk and Chris want to get back to their own village, too.”
Anna got to her feet. “When will I see you again? How will I let you know what we find out about Frieda?”
“I don’t know,” Emily replied. “Maybe you can send word to me through the Lycaon. You can send word to Aimee, and her troop of warriors can relay that information to the Ursidrean border patrol. I have a feeling the Ursidreans are going to be on better terms with the Lycaon from now on.”
Anna followed her to the door. “I sure wish you didn’t have to go so soon. You just got here.”
Emily cast one last look in Penelope Ann’s direction. “Me, too, but we’ll see each other again. I’m sure of it. I’m really glad you’re happy here. I know you’ll settle in and make a home for yourself.”
“And I’m sure you’ll be happy with....” She smiled. “With Faruk.”
Emily gave her sister one last hug. Penelope Ann didn’t come to the railing to say good-bye. Emily swung her leg over the rail and started climbing down the tree trunk. Anna leaned over the side and waved to her until she climbed out of sight.