CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JAHLE

She tumbled away, her bright hair fading as the murky water surrounded her. Jahle released his grip on the wall, and grabbed for her, but she moved too quickly, propelled by the strength of the creature that had snagged her.

No!

She will not die! Not like this.

He curled his feet under him and, using the rock wall, he launched himself toward her, fingers splayed, every muscle in his body straining to find her in the darkness.

There!

He caught a glimpse of motion in the dark. The flash of her pale skin. The curve of a glowing tentacle, drawing her away.

You shall not have her!

She is my Avowed!

She is mine!

Jahle pushed aside his fear of the water and tapped into that part of him he had been avoiding since he woke in his new form. He had found his Avowed, and with the blooming of his second heart, he unlocked his Virtue of the Avowed.

The power deep within him stirred, responding to his call, and his body buckled. He twisted in the water, thrashing as his body changed. Scales like armor-plating exploded from his skin, interlocking across his body as his muscles elongated.

His bones broke and knit into new formations. As he stretched for Mel, he grew longer and leaner. He whipped his tail, propelling him forward, his talons reaching for her.

The transformation took a great deal of resources, and he his head grew light from lack of oxygen. Yet he kept his focus on Mel. His new muscles moved him through the water, and he caught up with her.

He clawed the tentacle holding her, severing it from the source which lurked in the darkness below. The stub whipped away, followed by the others surrounding them.

Run, he roared in his mind. Run like a coward!

Mel floated limply in the water, and he curled his clawed fist around her, cradling her tiny form to his new monstrous one. Her hair drifted, and her eyes remained closed.

I have you, my love.

Before he kicked upward, tentacles shot out of the darkness, wrapping them both in pulsating light. He drew Mel toward his chest and curled around her, protecting her delicate skin from the barbed hooks with his own tough armor. The tentacles flailed all over his thick hide, scrambling to find purchase. He rolled in the water, snapping at them, until they retreated.

However, Jahle could not stop his downward descent. When he uncurled, he struggled to recall which way was up. His head spun and his body shook. Darkness surrounded him, with not even the faintest glimmer of light to guide him to the surface. He twisted, trying to make sense of his new body and the weightlessness of the water.

Fear clenched his guts, making him struggle.

He would not die here. Not with his precious cargo in his hands.

He peered down at Mel. Darkness shrouded her face. Shutting his eyes, he brought to mind her riotous curls. Her long limbs. The way she shot daggers at him when he annoyed her. The fullness of her mouth when she moaned his name.

A tickling sensation ran up the scales of his neck and jaw.

He opened his eyes, but saw nothing. Yet he felt the tickle once more.

Bubbles.

The last bit of air from her lungs? Or just a bubble trapped in the corner of her mouth?

Bubbles.

Bubbles!

He knew which way was up. He stretched out his neck and began to kick and flick his tail and hind legs. Slowly at first, he moved upward, and then faster and faster, until he began to see the lights of the water mollusks above. His head burst into the air of the second cavern. Lungs heaving, he pulled Mel’s face out into the air. Her eyelids fluttered, and her nostrils flared.

She still lives!

His heavier Virtuous form tried to drag them both back down, so he returned to his lighter Latent form, pulling Mel close as he changed. While her waist had fit neatly into the curve of his talons, in his hands, she was a dead-weight. He flailed in the water, one arm curled around Mel until he reached the wandering barrel.

He hoisted Mel onto his chest, and rolled the barrel under his back and shoulder, leaving their legs trailing in the water. The fear of the tentacled creature returning loaned him strength. He kicked until his legs brushed the floor of the cavern, and he stood, hauling Mel and the barrel to the rocky shore.

He pressed his ear to her chest. The faint but steady thumping of her heart rewarded him. Her chest fluttered as she breathed, but blue and green hues mottled her creamy skin. Her lips were purple, and dark circles surrounded her eyes.

“Mel! Wake!” He tapped her cheeks with his hands. They were like ice.

She rewarded him with a weak cough before throwing up a considerable amount of dirty water.

“Oh, thank the moons,” he whispered.

She began to shiver. He needed to warm her up. Their clothes had survived inside the barrel. He pulled off her frozen shirt. He couldn’t get her pants on over her wet legs, so he used them to dry off her skin before dressing her in both her clothes and his. He dumped out the food from the backpacks and wound the fabric around her feet and hands. The wet pants served as a pillow, protecting her head from the pebbles.

“Fire,” he muttered. “Fire.”

But the cavern was bare.

His eyes landed on a tunnel leading out. Quickly he packed up their belongings into a single backpack, and scooped her into his arms. He followed the tunnel for a while before encountering a fork in the road.

The navigator had been correct.

Her tremors seemed to double, so Jahle curled his body around hers as best he could and hurried. To his relief, he soon found himself in a main access tunnel, one designed for heavy use. Markers set high in the wall showed him the way to the nearest campsite, still a good distance away.

“Almost there,” he crooned to her.

When he finally turned into the campsite, his legs were rubber. He collapsed to his knees and lowered Mel to the ground. Yet he could not afford to rest. He threw open the storage crate and nearly sobbed when he saw it had been stripped of resources.

“No bed,” he told Mel. “No heater.” He found a coil of rope and a small wooden box that rattled when he shook it. A fire starter. “It will have to do.”

He lit the fire by the mouth of the campsite, hoping they wouldn’t succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning. Fires in caves were dangerous without proper ventilation, but Mel needed warmth. When every flammable object he salvaged from the storage crate burned, he dragged Mel closer to the fire.

With his body pressed against hers, he lay on the ground, chewing his way through protein bars. He had intended to only eat two, but after shifting to his Virtuous form, he craved food. He ate five before forcing himself to stop.

Mel’s trembling slowed, then stopped, and her breathing deepened. Her face seemed to regain some color in her lips and cheeks, and when he touched her hand, her fingers held warmth again. Under his fingertips, her pulse fluttered.

I almost lost her, he thought. He brushed her hair until he fell asleep.

He awoke from a dream of his mother’s voice calling his name. “Jahle?”

Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he realized Mel spoke. He sat up and pulled her into his arms. “I am here.”

Her lashes fluttered and her eyes opened. When she spoke, her words were slurred and slow. “What happened?”

“We were attacked by a beast in the water. You passed out.”

She tried to struggle into a seating position, and flopped over. “No,” she said. Her head wobbled from side to side. “Somethin’ else. I was fighting and then I froze up.”

Jahle lifted her sweatshirt and examined the neat lines of red marks the tentacles had left. They appeared puffy and raised, with streaks of angry purple running across them. Some sort of venom? He tucked her shirt back down when she shivered, and he stoked the fire a few times to build it back up. After eating and drinking, her color returned, but the bruised look under her eyes didn’t seem to fade.

While he refilled the canteens from the water pump, Mel sat by the fire, warming herself.

“How do you feel?” he asked, packing away the canteens.

“Better,” she said. Her voice held steady, and her control of her limbs had returned.

“Are you okay to move? The spaceport is close. We should move with haste. Dogan will not be far behind.”

“I think so,” she said. She rolled her shoulders and coughed. “I'm more like myself at least. What was that thing?”

“I do not know.”

“No offense, but your planet is messed up.”

He nodded. The fault lies with the Ennoi Cadam.

They extinguished the fire and Jahle lifted Mel to her feet. For a second, they stood with their bodies pressed together. He remembered their last kiss, and warmth filled him. I could have lost her. He bent his head, bringing his mouth closer to hers.

“We should go,” Mel blurted out. She stepped away, leaving his hand suspended in midair. Her eyes held a hard emotion he could not place.

Does her pride rankle at being rescued?

He let his hand drop, watching as Mel slung a backpack over her shoulder and marched to the entrance of the campsite. She stopped and beckoned to him. “Come on.”

When he joined her in the corridor outside, he pointed her in the correct direction. “This tunnel will take us to a main thoroughfare.”

They marched on in silence.

With every step, the anxiety in Jahle’s belly grew. No doubt Dogan waited for them. For all his faults, Dogan was no fool. He would anticipate their next move, and with the diggers, he would probably get to the spaceport first.

We are walking into an ambush.

They were one step closer to the spaceport. One step closer to Dogan’s wrath. One step closer to Mel blasting away from this barren rock.

One step closer to losing Mel.