CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Mia followed Arek through the rim of trees along the Altarian beach.
She felt as if she were in a strange dream. Their surroundings were so beautiful, the sandy beach, the now calm sea lapping at the shore, a light breeze rustling the leaves as they passed. The scent of flowers drifting from the shrubs under the trees. Some kind of bird twittered quietly from the trees, and small insects buzzed in the undergrowth. Even the temperature was comfortable.
If she had not already been terrified by the water spout bursting from the tranquil sea behind them, she'd find it hard to believe there was anything to fear here. But now, as they walked, her nerves leapt at the slightest sound or movement. Was this how Arek and his warriors felt when they went into battle—hyper-alert, on edge? Ready for attack at any sec? If so, how did they stand it?
She would make a terrible warrior. The realization humbled her. Arek had males and females in his platoon, which meant Aurelian females must be tougher than her, at least some of them. No wonder he'd asked if she wanted to stay on the cruiser while he dealt with this challenge. She'd been nothing but a liability in the first. Would she be in this one, as well?
"Stay close to me," Arek said over his shoulder. "No matter what awaits us, we're stronger together."
"I have your back," she replied. "Well... at least part of it. There is a great deal of you, Aurelian."
"Yes," he drawled. "All of it honed to do battle."
He certainly was. "This time, I mean to fight alongside you, not cling to a—a branch."
Arek stopped and turned, shaking his head at her. "Stop berating yourself, Tygress. Most beings would have panicked and run at the sight of that Am-ghyr beast. You stayed by my side, and followed orders. And today, we are forewarned, on guard, knowing that Octiron won't hesitate to do their worst to stop us from completing the Race challenges. We will overcome, and we will win."
She gave him a long look, and then nodded, her jaw set. "Yes. We will—or die trying."
He gave her that slow wink. "And I have no intention of dying to amuse idiots." He turned and walked on.
Mia followed him, her resolve renewed. She was a Tygress, not a mawwr kit. So she wasn't a warrior, that didn't mean she couldn't fight. Tygresses were fierce in defense of their kits. She could help Arek, and this time she would. After all, this challenge promised felines, and she was felinoid herself. Smaller felines knew better than to mess with a Tygean.
Thus fired with determination, when Arek stopped in his tracks, and Mia moved to his side and saw their next challenge, first she gaped, then she laughed as relief flooded her.
They stood on the rim of a shallow, stone bowl. The place appeared to have been built as an amphitheater, carved out of the local stone, which was pale, nearly white, and smooth. Down in the center sat a low, circular flat area, a stage in the round.
In the center of this rose a dais, topped with a stemmed stone goblet, large enough to hold a golden ball, about the size of a soccer ball.
And sunning themselves on the stone seats all around the amphitheater, from top to bottom, arranged casually in pairs, threes and singly... were mawwrs. Little, furry mawwrs. Pretty felines with pointed ears, jewel-like eyes, fur ranging from ebony to white and two tails.
The light, comforting sound of purring reached them through the quiet air.
"'The kittens are denned, somewhere on Altaria'," Mia murmured. "They're just mawwrs! What kind of challenge is that? I love mawwrs. We have several at home, everyone on Bryght does. They're certainly not going to scare us."
"Yes," agreed Arek just as quietly, scanning the area closely. He was frowning, a line between his brows, as he scanned the amphitheater and the quiet, surrounding area. "We have them on Hamor base as well. But those are half wild."
"These appear to be placid," Mia said happily. "Basking in the warm sun." She chuckled again. "They look as if they're here to watch a play, or a musical performance."
He grunted. "A bit too placid, if you ask me. Deuce, I assume our challenge is to go down and get the golden ball?"
"Yes, Pri—uh, Commander," the AI said in a hushed voice. "You must retrieve the ball from the stage, and bring it safely to your ship. Good luck."
Arek was still scanning the area, scowling suspiciously. He almost seemed to waiting for something.
"Come," Mia urged him, already moving to the top step. "Let's go down and get the ball. The mawwrs certainly won't miss it."
"Wait," he ordered. "I don't trust these steps. Let me go first."
She waved a hand toward the mawwrs on the steps. "But the mawwrs are fine on the steps." The place didn't look like a trap, it looked to be a gracious venue for performance, built by beings who had the leisure and intellect to appreciate culture.
"The mawwrs weigh very little," he pointed out. He leaned down and picked up two large stones, one in each hand. Then he dropped one on the step below where they stood. It landed with a thud, and... nothing happened. A few mawwrs looked around, their furry heads swiveling, but none of them moved.
Waiting behind Arek, Mia nearly leaned down to pet a silky looking white mawwr by her feet, but a certain unfriendly gleam in the creature's green eyes stopped her. She curled her fingers into her palms and edged away from it. These mawwrs were no doubt not used to humanoids. Although they stayed in place and continued to purr despite Arek and his stones.
Arek stepped down beside the rock, and dropped the other on the step below. The same thing—nothing—happened.
In this tortuously slow fashion, they proceeded down into the bottom of the amphitheater. There Arek paced carefully up onto the dais, then beckoned to Mia.
The mawwrs watched them placidly.
"I'm going to pick up the ball," her bossy partner informed her. "We'll go back up, exactly the way we came down. Follow the smudges where I dropped the rocks, see?"
"I see," she said, fairly dancing in place. "Can we just get the ball and go?" For some reason, the complacent behavior of the mawwrs was beginning to bother her.
Arek swung his pac off his back and opened it. "I'll get it. Things have been quiet thus far. But because we're where we are, I fully expect all hells to break loose in some way the moment I pick up the ball."
Her feline senses were hyper-alert in a way that said he was right. There was something wrong here. She just couldn't tell what it was. "What do you think will happen?"
"Hells if I know. But hang onto my belt. If the floor drops out or something like that, I'll grab the bowl and swing us both up."
She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as she eyed the apparently solid stone under their feet. "All right."
He reached for the ball, set his hands on either side, and then lifted it from the bowl, sweeping it under his arm and into his open pac with one movement. His laser was already in his right hand, his left stretched out to hold the lip of the bowl.
Nothing happened. "All right," Arek muttered. "Laser out, get ready to run."
A piercing yowwwl of feline anger rang through the quiet air. Mia whirled in shock—what was this new threat that had alerted the mawwrs?
She fully expected to see something, or someone large, menacing them from the upper lip of the amphitheater.
But the only movement was one of the mawwrs, a big gray. It wasn't looking outward or upward, it was staring at them. It's eyes glowed bright green. And it was stalking them from the bottom step. Was this the real threat? Had the little felines been trained somehow to attack anyone who touched the ball?
"Give me the catnip," she urged, holding out her hand.
Arek slapped the bag of herb into her palm, and Mia opened it, fumbling some out. She tossed a handful to the small feline... only to have her gift completely ignored.
"Behind me!" Arek rapped, already aiming his laser. The mawwr leapt, straight at Arek. Laser fired streaked, and the mawwr jerked in midair, falling inert to the dais at their feet.
"You killed it," Mia whispered. "I don't understand—how did they train it to attack like that?"
"Mia, look at it." He toed the thing with his boot. A curl of smoke rose from the carcass. "No blood. It's not a living creature—it's a bot."
He backed to the dais, pulling her with him. "They're all bots."
Mia gazed out in horror as every mawwr on the steps came to life, and began to swarm down the steps toward them. "Oh, my Goddess, you're right."
So much for the quarking catnip. It had just been a horrid joke. Octiron's bloodthirsty audiences were no doubt laughing their heads off right now.
She raised her laser and shot another mawwr as it leapt. It fell, only to be run over by several more.
Arek was firing without pause, laser fire crackling as it struck mawwr bot after bot, the small bodies heaping on the steps and the dais.
Mia fired as quickly as she could, but she screamed when a weight landed on her shoulder, sharp claws raking her neck over the top of her uniform. Reaching up, she grasped the bot and yanked it off, lasering it at close range.
She staggered as two more attacked from behind, landing on her arms, dragging at them until she dropped the laser.
Arek staggered. Letting out a scream of rage, Mia clawed at the bots landing on him, her claws tearing free to aid her as she ripped a mawwr to the dais and stomped on it. It sparked and smoked under her boot, the lighted eyes going dark.
Fury engulfing her, she clawed the bots off of her and went after the next that leapt at her. She was faster this way anyway.
Grab a bot in her sharp claws, smack it against the stone bowl to break its inner works and fling it at the next. Grab two more, smash them while she stomped on more. Grab another off of Arek's back and tear it apart. Go for more, ignoring the pain in her cheek as another bot leapt on her.
Stagger as several more landed on her, bearing her down under their weight, pain slashing her as they attacked, their razor claws ripped through the gaaulites.
"Mia!" Arek roared, his eyes wild. Blood covered one side of his face and stained his jacket. He grabbed her, hauling the bots off of her and flinging them away to land somewhere in the swarm. He hauled Mia into the shelter of his arm, firing with the other hand. "Hold on! Hide your face, and don't let go!"
"You hide your face," she shrieked. "I'm busy!"
She clawed another bot off of his neck, and two more from his shoulders, then hissed in pain as bots clawed her legs.
"Aurelians!" Arek bellowed over her head. "To me! To me!"
Mia had no time to wonder what this strange battle cry meant, as a sudden wind whooshed around them.
And suddenly mawwr bots were flying, not toward them but away, disappearing in smoke and flame, amid yells of battle cry, not only from Arek but from other tall, gaulite clad warriors who had seemingly appeared from nowhere. She was hallucinating—she had to be.
"Get down, sir! We'll flame the rest!" someone yelled.
Arek grasped Mia and covered her head with his arms, pulling her down with him into the shelter of the dais. She caught one glimpse of him firing at a mawwr that darted in, jaws gaping with razor sharp teeth, eyes shining impossibly bright. He lasered it, the mawwr fell back and disappeared in a puff of flame and smoke.
"Close your eyes!" he shouted. "It's gonna get real bright."
He gave her no choice anyway, smashing her face against his chest, his arm around the back of her head, his own ducked down beside hers. And still, the flash of light and heat that followed burned itself onto her retinas, and stung her skin.
Another flash, and another... and then slowly the noise and commotion dwindled.
Boots thudded on stone, and Arek patted her back. "All right, Tygress. Up now."
Mia let him help her to her feet, needing the grasp of his strong hand as she reeled with shock and the aftermath of adrenaline.
She blinked at the sight of the tall, broad-shouldered warrior awaiting them, one foot on the bottom of the dais, a mask covering his face, a huge laser in his hands. Four more warriors ranged about the steps, and another appeared from behind the dais.
"About quarking time you showed up, A'Ralle," Arek called. Then he grinned, and lifted his free hand in greeting. "Well fought, warriors."
"And righteously won!" Arms raised, the Aurelians loosed blood-curdling cries of victory.
Mia's ears rang. They were real, they were all real. But, who were these warriors, and how in the hells had they gotten here, just in time to save her and Arek?
The nearest reached up, stripped off his mask to reveal a handsome, grinning face. He looked her over and his grin widened. "So this is your teammate? Well paired, A'Renoq. Well paired."
Arek gave Mia a squeeze and let her go. "Mia Jag, meet my friend and fellow warrior, T'Van A'Ralle. And his team, who you can meet later. For now, let's get the hells out of this place."
T'Van jerked his chin in agreement. "Agree. These bots stink of fried hair and wires. Follow us, we'll take you back to our compound."
"We'll meet you there," Arek told him, a hand on Mia's back. "We've got to stow the Race token. Also, I don't want to leave our ship unguarded too long."
"Hop on my hovie, I'll take you there. We touch down only in places we know to be safe."
"Even better." Arek held out his hand to Mia. "Come, Tygress. Let's get out of here."
Mia took his hand, and they clambered through the piles of smoking bots, which no longer resembled mawwrs, and did indeed reek, stinging her sensitive nose. They jogged up the steps of the amphitheater.
At the top, she looked over her shoulder at the heaps of ruin littering the pale stone amphitheater, and shuddered. Goddess, they were fortunate to have survived the attack of those things. They'd been small and harmless looking, but in such numbers, they would have surely proved deadly.
"I should have known they weren't real," she realized. "They had no scent when they were alive—I mean, activated. I should have known."
Arek pulled her with him onto the last step. "Well, we knew something would blow up, just didn't expect it to be a bunch of little felines. Let's go get our ship—and hells, you're bleeding."
He tipped her face up, examining her throat, which stung badly, she realized.
"You're bleeding too," she pointed out, her tummy contracting. He had an ugly scratch on his jaw, and the one across his prominent cheekbone was still oozing blood. "We've got to get those cleaned up."
He was right, there was no sense fussing about clues missed. Octiron had once again thrown their worst at them, but they'd completed another Race challenge, with the strange and timely arrival of his fellow Aurelians.
She clambered onto one of the military hovies with him, while his friend T'Van took the front seat and controls. As they lifted off, and skimmed in the direction of the ship, she looked up at Arek. "How did your friends know where to find us? And how did they even get here?"
T'Van laughed, and Arek gave her a crooked grin. "Now there's a story for the campfire."
She blinked. "What's a campfire?"
Arek and his friend all chuckled at this. "An ancient custom of warriors on campaign," he told her. "Once accomplished with dead wood gathered wherever they bivouacked for the night. Now, we sit around a fusion heater."
"Still drink whiskey, though," T'Van called. He slowed the hovie at the edge of the beach near the Starry Night, and let out a whistle. "Now that's a pretty ship. Is Octiron gonna let you keep her?"
"So they claim," Arek replied dryly.
"Not sure I believe that, or anything else Octiron says," Mia said bitterly. "They keep trying to kill us."
"You think those mawwr bots were Octiron's?" T'Van asked. "Could've been one of the traps left here by the rezzed bastards who used this place as their sci lab."
"Well, in either case, Octiron used them on us," Arek said. "And that's twice. I didn't trust them to begin with. Now… it's personal."
"I hate them," Mia hissed. "And I don't care if they are listening."
"You talking about those little spycams that were buzzing around you, watching you fight off the mawwr bots?" T'Van asked, stopping the hovie beside the Starry Night. "Gone. L'Nola does enjoy a little sharp-shooting."
Arek and Mia's eyes met, and he chuckled, lifting her bodily from the hovie and depositing her carefully on the ramp to their ship. "Glad to hear it. Been wanting to do that myself since the first sec they started buzzing in our faces like 'squitoes."
"Oh, goddess, yes," Mia agreed fervently. "Thank him for me, will you?"
"You can thank her yourself, Tygress, at supper. Arek, a word?"