Chapter One

 

With a primal yell, Savich flung the javelin straight and true. The spiny barb hit its mark, deep in the throat of the scabika. A pulse of blood sprung like a font from its gaping maw, and it collapsed mid-strike. Savich made quick work of skinning the beast, burying the offal, and butchering the meat. He draped long strips of meat over his smoking fire and turned a large portion on a spit. Still more skewers held chunks of the tenderest bits. Taking a bite of the roasted meat, he gave a humorless laugh. If the Krinar Elders could see him now. He was like a feral animal. Killing beasts and eating the meat. He was a kavelt, an exile. They didn’t accept him as part of Krinar society, and Savich was fine with that. The lonely life on this planet suited him. He looked around his temporary hunting campsite.

Centuries on this world gave him time to hone skills that had been long lost and never missed by his people. He recalled with clarity the technology he had grown up with. Soft mattresses, chairs that conformed to one’s mood, nanotechnology that allowed the molecular redistribution of properties to form anything a Krinar could want. Anything except the past.

Savich rose from his squatting position to his full height of seven krinot spans. Night fell quickly on his world. He retreated from the ring of light from his fire to the deep shadows of the forested glen. A hunter knew never to look into the flames at night; it easily caused blindness once he turned to see into the darkness. With his back to the fire, he listened to the insects and creeping things that itched the tree leaves with their feet, rustled branches and dug in the dirt. The death of the scabika could bring the wily night creatures if they scented its blood. The smell of the fire and cooked meat would keep most animals at bay, however, so Savich could snatch a few moments of sleep. He didn’t need much to function at the top of his form, yet sleep gave him the reprieve he sought, the escape from memories better left unremembered and unmourned.

The planet’s moon was halfway across the sky when Savich heard a slight pop. Startled, he recovered in a second and wiped a large hand down his face, obscuring all expression, when Kumar stepped into the glade.

“You look like a pile of domesticated animal shit.”

Savich stared at his old friend, then let a slow smile spread across his face. “You look very pretty, Kumar. This new Earth life agrees with you?”

Kumar put his hands in his pockets but returned the smile. “How are you?”

“I am well,” Savich replied. He swept his hand out toward the campfire and the lines holding his smoking meat. “I eat like a king here on my world.” Not to mention his more permanent home, a few hours trek south of here had his food stores and many hand-crafted comforts.

“If you’re trying to offend me by bragging about your consumption of meat, it won’t work. My charl enjoys the occasional taste of meat.”

“Charl?”

Kumar shrugged. “I have taken a human mate.”

Savich scowled. “You may as well return to eating flesh then. Now who’s the savage?”

Kumar scoffed and looked at the fire a moment before returning his gaze to his friend. “I never called you a savage.”

Savich ran his hand through his long black hair and scratched his muscled chest. He looked down at his leather loincloth, fur-lined boots, and various leather straps that held tools and knives. “Do I not look the part?”

“I didn’t come tonight to argue about your primitive living conditions. I came to invite you to Earth.”

Savich couldn’t have been more surprised if a scabika had jumped out of the woods doing a song and dance routine.

“I thought Krinar were settling it.”

“They are.” Kumar looked Savich up and down, as if measuring him against the man he used to be.

“I am kavelt. You know that.”

Kumar cocked his head. “I spoke with the Elders.”

Savich lunged at Kumar, hands spread to grasp him by the throat. Kumar easily swatted him to the side, their strength matched. Savich crouched, panting. “Before you attempt to smear charcoal all over my pretty clothes, listen to me.”

Savich rose to standing again, hands dropped to his sides.

“I need you. There are factions of humans spread across the globe resisting our colonization. They insist on wreaking havoc, destroying peaceful relations.”

“That’s what your Guardians are for,” Savich said. “Your force fields, your technology. You’re telling me you can’t control a few human rats?”

Kumar tilted his head again. “I will pretend you didn’t just insult the race of my beloved charl.”

Savich snorted but dipped his head in apology.

“Yes, we use all of those things you mentioned. But there is a secluded faction in a northern country. The government is cooperative, the people receptive, and yet we struggle.” Kumar approached Savich and began circling him as if he were an object for sale. “You and I have met over the centuries, talking, catching up.”

Savich growled. “You don’t need to remind me that you’re my only friend.”

“We have a history,” Kumar said. “But more than that, I need you.”

Savich scrubbed dirty hands across his whiskers, his frown creasing his forehead. “I don’t think I can live among the Krinar again. Even after all this time. It isn’t for me.”

Kumar clasped his hands behind his back. “Perhaps it is true. But maybe you could live among humans.” When Savich shot his eyes to meet Kumar’s, Kumar shrugged. “If you are unhappy, come back here to this world. It looks as though you have made it your home sweet home.”

Savich watched Kumar inspect his sleeping tent made of stretched scabika skins and frowlak furs. “I have very little needs and simple comforts. The quiet life suits me.”

At that moment, the scream of a riled scabika mate split the night. The huge reptile with skinny blades for teeth shrieked and pounced into the clearing, its huge talons gouging the ground between Savich and Kumar. It lunged at Kumar who stood calmly, watching Savich with languid eyes. Savich leaped upon the scabika’s horned back, wrenched its head to the left, away from Kumar, and slit its thick neck with one of his bone knives. The scabika collapsed in a heap at Kumar’s feet. Savich uncurled himself from its back and drove his bloody knife into the dirt, pulling it out clean.

“Am I to hunt and kill humans? Is that the skill you need?” Savich spit on the dead beast, heaving a little from his exertion.

Kumar let amusement shine in his eyes. “Of course not. We try to keep human deaths at a minimum. Not that we can control what they do to each other,” he said with a shrug. “However, the hunting part could be quite useful.”

Kumar stepped toward the scabika corpse and touched it gingerly with his sandaled foot. He grimaced.

Savich smiled with gleaming white teeth, a feral grin that would cause humans to wet themselves if they witnessed it. Kumar waited.

Savich looked back at his dying fire, and at the meat that would soon be scavenged by night creatures if he didn’t guard it.

“I don’t want to see another Krinar,” Savich said without meeting Kumar’s eyes. “Can you promise me that?”

“I would say no except the place I need you is very far from our settlement in New Mexico, and farther still from Lendarka. You will be as isolated from Krinar as possible, but I can’t guarantee you wouldn’t see a rogue citizen here or there.” Kumar put a hand on Savich’s sweaty shoulder and gripped it. “The Elders made me promise not to tell a soul. No one will know that you’re on Earth.”

Savich looked at the heap on the ground in front of him. “Scabika tastes like shit.”

Kumar burst into a laugh, and together they stepped through the portal.