Seventeen
Niyx’s assumptions had been correct.
After relocating a short distance from Roka’s tent—close enough to protect him but far enough from curious Meyarin eyes—both Zain and Kyia had been hesitant to attack Alex. She’d taken full advantage of their caution, lashing out with a fervour that had unarmed them and shocked them into defeat in less than two minutes flat. The swiftness of the fight and their surprise at her competence had kept them from making any comparisons likening her style to Niyx’s, meaning she was in the clear on that account—at least for now.
The haste of their defeat had prompted Kyia and Zain to demand a rematch, but Alex had claimed that hadn’t been part of their bargain. They’d been left to grudgingly accept that, just like them, no one else would expect her to be so fiercely combative. If nothing else, they believed she would have the surprise factor in her favour. And that was enough for them to yield their demands to further her training—at least for a little while.
After promising she would return again soon to update them on how the rest of her weekend cultural visits panned out, Alex returned to the Library, arriving in the foyer just seconds before Bear.
“We have a problem,” he said without preamble.
Alex’s mind jumped to the fifty thousand potential possibilities before she decided it was best just to ask. “What’s happened?”
“Luranda caught Jordan and Dix making out behind Gen-Sec while you were gone,” Bear said. “For obvious reasons, I wasn’t with them,”—he pulled a comical face—“so I couldn’t use my gift to charm her into being more lenient. They’re both stuck in detention with her for the rest of the day.”
Alex sighed. “Those two. I mean, I’m happy for them, but still. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep their hands off each other long enough to not miss out on coming tomorrow as well.”
Bear winced. “Actually…”
At his expression, Alex sighed again. “Their detention’s not just today, is it?”
He shook his head. “All weekend. Luranda has zero tolerance for teenage hormones.”
Rubbing her forehead, Alex dredged up a smile. “Well, I’m glad you’re still with me, Bear. Together we’ll take on the world.”
He chuckled and said, “Let’s just start with Maroo and see how we go from there.”
Grinning at him, Alex led the way towards the staircase and, when they stepped through to the corridor of doors, she asked the Library to show them the way to Maroo. Immediately a door opened and Alex and Bear walked through it.
Transported straight into the middle of a dense jungle, they were suddenly surrounded by trees and moss, by dangling vines and trickling streams.
Swatting at a bug that landed on her neck, Alex carefully assessed their situation. Looking about her, and especially above, she could see no sign of the treetop city of the Jarnocks. What she could see were strange, monkey-like creatures jumping through the trees, and birds of all shapes and sizes yabbering to each other. The cacophony of jungle sounds assailed her ears, but it wasn’t the noise that was most uncomfortable, even with her heightened hearing. It was the heat.
Within seconds of arriving, Alex was covered in sweat from the intense humidity. She’d never felt anything like it before, and she quickly began to strip her heavy winter gear off right along with Bear. Given the vast changes in temperatures all over Medora, they’d both thought to wear layers that day—much to their mutual relief.
Down to jeans and a stretchy camisole, Alex was still stifling enough that she summoned A’enara and carefully cut into the denim, tearing it until her pants were transformed into tattered shorts.
“Much better,” she murmured, turning to Bear. He’d undressed enough to be wearing a tank with his jeans, but when she motioned silently towards A’enara, he shook his head firmly.
“These are my lucky jeans.”
Alex wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. But his jeans had already frayed in some areas—ridiculous that he’d be wearing them in winter—so she knew they at least would be cooler and not as uncomfortable as hers had been.
“The offer’s on the table if you need it,” Alex said, banishing her weapon. Glancing around again, she pointed out the obvious. “There’s a distinct lack of Jarnocks here. I’m guessing that means we’ll have to search for their city.”
“The teachers said it’s to the north of the island.” Bear squinted up through the thick canopy and stepped over a downed log to reach one of the nearby trees. Running his hands along the moss on the bark, he returned to Alex’s side and pointed to her left. “We need to go that way.”
Alex was surprised—and impressed—by his Boy Scout antics. “Are you sure?”
Wiping his mossy fingers on his ‘lucky’ jeans, he said, “I was obsessed with survival VRs when I was a kid. Virtual reality programs,” he added when he saw her puzzlement. “Like in the Rec Room.”
An image of an abandoned castle, a pouncing wolf and a glob of bloodied drool on her arm sprung to Alex’s mind from her first experience with the Rec Room’s virtual reality projector. She shuddered at the memory.
“I used to visit those survival challenges all the time,” Bear continued, “so I learned a lot about this kind of thing.” He indicated to the jungle around them, completely at ease in the suffocating atmosphere, unlike Alex.
“At least one of us knows what they’re doing,” she said. “I know the Library wouldn’t have dropped us off in this specific place without reason, but without you, I’d have no idea which direction to head in.”
“I’m sure you’d have figured it out,” Bear said. At her uncertain look, he added, “Eventually.”
“Well, speaking of eventually,” Alex said, “we’re going to have to find our way back here for this doorway, so we need to remember this place.”
Bear looked around. “How hard could it be? It’s between the tree that looks like all the others, the rock that looks like all the others and the stream that—wait for it—looks like all the others.”
“Very funny,” Alex deadpanned.
Chuckling, Bear said, “Our clothes are here, so they’ll be a marker for us. As long as we only head in one direction and remember where we enter from when we reach the city, we’ll be able to find our way back. Stick with me, Alex, and we’ll be fine.”
Bear was one of Alex’s best male friends, but she’d always considered herself slightly closer to Jordan. That was largely because she and Jordan had more shared experiences together—with SAS and, of course, everything that had happened with her saving him from Aven. But there was a steadfastness about Bear that Jordan lacked. Perhaps it was something that came from him having a loving, loyal family, which Jordan had been denied until the Ronnigans had embraced him. But whatever the reason, Alex was glad it was Bear who was with her today. Especially given his unexpected environmental wisdom.
“Then by all means, lead the way, good sir,” Alex said with a flourishing gesture.
Shaking his head in amusement, Bear did as she asked and walked forward in the direction he’d claimed to be north.
He made it all of three steps before Alex heard a whistling sound. It was so quiet amongst the overwhelming jungle noises that she didn’t figure out what it might be until it was too late. But an inner instinct made her turn her body at the last microsecond, enough that whatever was aimed at her sailed straight by.
Unfortunately, that meant it shot square into Bear’s shoulder, and a surprised sound was all he managed to utter before he slumped bonelessly to the ground.
All this Alex watched with stunned eyes, and when the second dart whistled, she was so shocked by the sight of her friend crumpled at her feet that she didn’t move fast enough before it buried itself in the side of her neck.
She only had time to hiss with pain and yank the barb from her skin before her vision blurred and she collapsed next to Bear, unconscious before she hit the jungle floor.
When Alex came to, the ground was moving. Big, heaving quakes underneath her body, which was slung stomach-down over something that felt coarse and hairy against her flesh.
With a muted groan, she forced her eyes open and found that she was draped across the withers of some large beast, her hands and feet tightly bound. Clumps of muddied, matted hair chaffed against her body, indicating that her transport clearly hadn’t bathed anytime recently—or, perhaps, ever, judging by the odour emanating from its shaggy coat.
Suppressing her gag reflex, Alex kept her breathing shallow and raised her head as much as she could. It was then that she saw Bear dangling face down across a similar beast trudging through the jungle beside her. Squinting at the creature, she thought it looked like a mixture of a wild boar crossed with an elephant.
Seated atop the beast and behind the unconscious Bear were two Jarnocks guiding the steed by vines tied to its formidable tusks. Turning her head slightly, Alex saw legs belonging to two Jarnocks seated behind her as well.
Other than their four captors and the two beasts, there didn’t appear to be anyone else in their entourage. If she weren’t bound so securely and hanging so awkwardly over the creature, she might have had a chance at escaping, but her position was precarious at best. She was better off waiting for the Jarnocks to presumably deliver her and Bear to their city, and see what happened from there.
You want to tell me why I have a stinging pain in my neck, kitten? came Niyx’s voice. And why I haven’t been able to reach you for the last ten minutes?
Alex deliberated a moment as she thought about how she’d let her guard down, resulting in her now being strung over a smelly beast in the least dignified position imaginable. Honestly? I’d rather not.
As if he sensed her embarrassment through their bond, Niyx just sighed and said, Whatever you’re doing, just don’t get us killed. And he left it at that, disappearing from her mind.
Groaning quietly when the beast heaved them over a fallen log and the movement jarred against her stomach, Alex heard a rustling sound from the Jarnock closest to her and then a coarse-sounding voice.
“Chaga shisa chugot.”
The second Jarnock responded instantly, “Chig chock eh.”
Xiraxus must have known the language of the Jarnocks because Alex found herself understanding the bristly words: ‘This one’s awake,’ followed by, ‘Not for long.’
And that was all the warning she received before she heard the whistle sound and felt the accompanying sting of another dart, this one piercing her jeans and biting into the cheek of her buttocks.
She didn’t have time to feel indignant—or respond to Niyx’s annoyed, Aeylia!—before she was once again drifting into unconsciousness.
The next time Alex awoke, she was on solid ground again, now tied back-to-back with Bear. Their feet remained bound, as did their hands behind their backs, but additional vines were around their torsos, securing them to a wooden beam.
Taking stock of their surroundings, all Alex could tell was that they were in a circular room the likes of which could have been fashioned by the jungle itself. The floor was made of dark, irregular wooden boards, the walls like rough tree bark and the ceiling some kind of thatched mix of earthy vegetation. There were open gaps in place of windows and a door, but from Alex’s position, she couldn’t get a good view outside.
What she needed was to be rid of her bonds. But aside from summoning A’enara—and likely slicing or burning Bear in the process, since her hands were pressed against him and the beam—there was little she could do to escape her trussed up state.
“Bear?” she whispered after another scan confirmed they were alone in the room. “You awake?”
He didn’t respond, so she rocked back against the beam, trying to jostle him.
“Bear!” she hissed, louder this time.
“Wah… Huh?” came his slurred response.
“Wake up!” Alex told him.
“’m ’wake, ’lex,” he said, before she heard the distinct sound of renewed snoring.
“Bear!” she cried, loud enough to startle a jump out of him, which yanked the vines tightly at her ribs. “Ouch! Don’t move so much.”
“What’s going on?” he asked, wriggling against their bonds before processing her words and stopping. “Where are we?”
“Not sure,” she replied. “Can you see anything from your side? Other than the room we’re in?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Just a massive tree trunk.”
“Tree trunk?”
“Looks like this house thing is attached to the side of a tree,” he said. “As in, moulded into it.”
Before Alex could respond, she picked up the sound of footsteps coming their way, along with hushed murmurs in the foreign Jarnock language.
“Any chance you have an escape plan?” Bear asked. “Because I’m fresh out of—”
“Shhhh!” Alex whispered her warning, cutting him off. “They’re coming.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth before three Jarnocks entered the room. Two males and a female. Each of them reached no higher than Alex’s hip if she’d been standing. All three wore skirt-like loincloths, made from some kind of leathery hide tied to their hips, with the female wearing the same material scantily positioned across her chest. Woven bands were around their biceps securing their hollowed dart pipes, and they had charcoal-like tribal markings painted onto their arms, legs and faces, as well as across the bare torsos of the males.
“With us, come you,” said one of the males in broken words of the common tongue, his bald head differentiating him from the other.
The second male, who sported hair long enough to be tied at his nape, moved forward. He drew a weapon from his belt—a rudimentary dagger of sharpened stone tethered to a wooden hilt—and used it to cut through the bindings securing Alex and Bear around the pole. He then did the same to the vines trapping their hands and feet and motioned for them to stand.
Wobbling slightly as she got her legs steady under her, Alex looked down at the three Jarnocks. Her wrists were quickly captured by the female Jarnock who tied them together once more, but this time at her front. Positioned like this, she could draw A’enara to cut her bonds, free herself and fight a way out of there for her and Bear. But despite the Jarnocks’ lack of civility, she, at least, needed to remain as diplomatic as possible. So she didn’t call forth her weapon. Nor did she whisper for Bear to attempt to use his gift to charm them an easy exit. They weren’t that desperate. Yet.
Instead, she said, “I need to speak with your leader.”
“With us, come you,” repeated the bald male, this time more firmly.
The female drew her dart pipe and aimed it at Alex and Bear while the dagger-wielding Jarnock raised his blade threateningly, so Alex gritted her teeth and nodded.
With the bald Jarnock leading the way and the two others watchfully bringing up the rear, Alex and Bear followed their escort out the door. It was all Alex could do to keep her mouth from dropping open when she took in the sight beyond.
She’d heard of Maroo as being a tree city, but she’d never considered what such a description would entail. It truly was a city in the trees.
Standing high, high, high up off the jungle floor, Alex and her entourage were surrounded by innumerable dwellings hewn into the sides of giant trees, like fungi attached to logs. Thick, overlapping branches offered sturdy walkways, while swinging wooden rope bridges crisscrossed the canopy metropolis for easier access between the more distant trees. There were also loose vines that, as Alex watched, some Jarnocks used for speedier journeying across the city.
A sharp jabbing into her lower back from the stone-daggered male motivated her to continue following their escort, but she did so with wide eyes, taking in everything around her.
The dense canopy overhead allowed only brief trickles of afternoon sunlight to penetrate, so the city was lit by other means. There were lanterns placed all along the branch pathways—lanterns that, upon closer inspection, contained live glowing bugs. Like fireflies, the creatures gave off a strong golden glow, lighting the scenery with ease. But that was because they weren’t just contained within the lanterns. The bugs themselves were everywhere, flying freely amongst the city like twinkling stars.
Distracted by the magical view, Alex didn’t realise the bald Jarnock had stopped until she almost ran him over.
“Fall not,” he said, before leading the way onto one of the swinging bridges.
Even if Alex’s hands had been free to hold onto the vined sides, she still would have hesitated to step onto the hazardous-looking structure. But another sharp jab at her back prodded her forward, and she stepped carefully onto the first plank, her muscles tensing when it wobbled under her weight.
“I’m a fair sight heavier than you lot,” Bear said from behind her, a nervous note to his voice. “I don’t suppose you have an alternate route I can take?”
“Fall not!” called back the bald Jarnock again in response.
“Great advice,” Bear grumbled too low for the Jarnocks to hear but easy enough for Alex’s heightened senses. “Really helpful, thanks.”
Repressing a smile, Alex stepped onto the next plank. It, too, wobbled, but mostly because the bridge was suspended hundreds of feet in the air.
“It’s okay, Bear,” she said, trying to encourage him while hoping she wasn’t wrong. “Just go one step at a time and you’ll be fine.”
This time when he grumbled, not even Alex could make out what he said.
Taking her own advice, she moved step by step across the bridge. The hardest part by far was when she was in the middle and the whole thing swayed precariously underfoot. Not even her experience on the Valispath could save her from a momentary bout of vertigo. Her sudden dizziness caused the glowing bugs to swirl across her vision, so Alex closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. Doing so helped her pull herself together enough to continue on until she reached the other side of the bridge, her legs trembling when she stepped back onto the sturdier branch-path.
Bear was as white as a ghost when he arrived beside her. She wished she could offer him some words of comfort, but given their situation, she knew whatever she said would likely fall short. So, after another dagger jab against her back, all Alex could do was continue following the bald Jarnock.
They crossed three more death-defying bridges and wandered more lantern-lit branch-paths before they arrived at their destination. It was a large, flat area, as if someone had used a giant chainsaw on a tree the size of a small house, cleaving the top off it and leaving the smooth surface of the elevated trunk behind.
Seated side by side around its circumference was a multitude of Jarnocks, at least fifty of them. In the middle were three separated from the rest, and they sat facing Alex and Bear, with a small, smoking fire in front of them.
Clenching her jaw as she was jabbed forward yet again, Alex moved towards the three figureheads—which soon became four when their bald escort took a seat beside them.
Still sweltering from the jungle’s humidity, Alex’s discomfort grew as she approached the flames, but she followed obediently when the two remaining guards gestured for her and Bear to sit before they took up watchful positions behind them.
Just like seeing Tork with the Flips, Alex was surprised to see Mareek amongst the four seated in front of her. Given his capricious behaviour during her Species Distinction class, she wasn’t thrilled by his presence—or his apparent ranking amongst the Jarnocks—and she desperately hoped he would keep his dart pipe holstered.
“Mareek, I am,” he said, appearing to have no recollection of either Alex or Bear. “This Taka,”—he jerked his head towards the female at his right—“this Mietta,”—he gestured to the female on his left—“this Tibbs”—he pointed to the bald male who sat on the other side of Mietta. “We tribe chiefs.”
When he said no more, Bear nudged Alex.
She sent him a sideways glare before clearing her expression and turning back to the chiefs. “Uh, hey there. I’m Alex, and this is my friend, Bear.”
“You trespass on Maroo,” said Mietta, with shadows from the flames dancing on her charcoal-streaked cheeks. “You here no welcome.”
“We’re really sorry about that,” Alex said. “But we had to come so we could warn you.”
“Warn us what?” Taka asked, her owlish eyes unblinking.
Alex didn’t wait for another invitation. She jumped straight in, telling them about Aven and the threat he posed to all mortals.
By the time she was finished, her skin was clammy with sweat, with beads of liquid on her forehead from her proximity to the flames coupled with the suffocating mugginess of their environment.
“And that’s, well, that’s why we’re here,” she ended lamely. “So that you know he’s coming. And, hopefully, so you’ll stand with us to stop him.”
Silence met her final statement, the sounds of the jungle and the crackling of the fire the only noises to her ears.
Until Mareek started laughing. And then Taka. Mietta and Tibbs followed. Then all the Jarnocks seated around them joined in, until over fifty loin-clothed little people were belly-laughing uproariously.
Alex scowled at them. “None of this is amusing,” she said. “Not one thing.”
“One Meyarin no scare us,” Mareek said, still laughing.
Tibbs threw his arm out, gesturing to their tree city. “This Aven reach us not here. Jarnocks safe.”
Alex shook her head firmly. “Now, maybe. But he’ll be coming for you. He’s coming for all of us.”
“If true, when you he get, we know then,” Mietta said, tossing her wiry braid over her shoulder.
That, Alex thought, was not a very nice thing to say. She looked around at the assemblage, from the still amused tribal chiefs to the other chuckling Jarnocks, and she wondered why she was even bothering with them. Yes, their tree city was impressive. But what did they have to offer outside of Maroo? Some tranquilliser darts and stone daggers? How would any of that hold up against Aven and his forces?
But then she remembered something Hunter had said during her briefing with the teachers: ‘Jarnocks are a primitive race, but what they lack in sophistication, they make up for in sheer numbers. It may seem difficult to believe, but they are a force to be reckoned with—if only for their volatile ferocity and unwavering loyalty. If their tribe is threatened, they will move mountains to make their people safe again. You just need to convince them of the threat.’
Alex had clearly failed in that mission. The Jarnocks were feeling no more threatened than she was feeling safe.
Deciding that she’d done all she could, Alex figured it was best to cut their losses and get out of there. She didn’t know how far they’d travelled from the Library doorway, but she hoped Bear’s inner Scout would be able to sixth-sense a way back for them. It was time to go, to regroup and hope for a better outcome with the Shadow Walkers and Dayriders tomorrow.
“I can see you don’t believe us,” Alex said. “But if the time ever comes when you need aid, our doors will always be open to you. We are on the same side, even if you don’t yet see Aven as a danger.”
More amused snorts met her words and she repressed the urge to scream at them. For a brief second, she envisioned asking Bear to try charming them into acquiescence, but then she realised that such an extreme action wouldn’t bode well for them down the track—especially if the Jarnocks learned of the attempt to sway them through false means.
Instead of doing something she might later regret, Alex simply said, “We only came here to warn you, so now that’s done, once you release us, we’ll just be on our way.”
Even more laughter met her statement, something that caused prickles of unease to trickle down her spine.
“The humans believe we’ll allow them to leave,” said Taka in her native language, causing Alex to turn rigid as the proper translation washed over her rather than their broken attempts at the common tongue.
“They must not know the ways of the Maroo,” Mietta returned, sharing a sharp-toothed smile with the other chiefs. “A pity for them, however fortunate for us.”
“But what shall we do with them?” Tibbs asked, scratching his bald head.
“They are young and healthy,” Mareek observed. “Jako hasn’t made his stew for a while—their tender flesh would make it rich and hearty.”
Alex’s stomach dipped violently and she struggled to keep her features blank.
“No, we should give them to Kaku,” Taka said, a thoughtful look on her weathered face. “They are a worthy sacrifice, and we will be blessed for such an offering.”
“Alex, do you know what’s going on?” Bear whispered, oblivious thanks to the language barrier.
All she could do was shake her head, not because she didn’t, but from the absolute horror of what she was hearing. Even if she didn’t fully understand the implications, the words ‘offering’ and ‘sacrifice’ were never good when spoken in the same sentence—especially from the mouths of primitive tree people who, if she understood correctly, had just considered eating them.
“Good thinking,” Mietta said, with Mareek and Tibbs nodding right along with her.
A single chin-jerk towards the guards behind Alex and Bear was all it took for Alex to realise she had to take action, regardless of how foolhardy it might be. It would take too much time for Bear to enchant them with his words, so it was up to her to stop what was about to happen—by any means necessary.
When the guards gestured for her to stand, she shot straight to her feet, summoning A’enara as she did so. Wielding the blazing weapon with her hands still bound at her front, she leapt over the fire with a burst of Meyarin speed and launched herself at the nearest chief, Taka, and they both tumbled to the ground.
Alex managed to get the tip of A’enara pressed up against the Jarnock faster than anyone else could react, and she raised her eyes to the three other chiefs and bellowed, “Nobody move!”
They didn’t. But Taka did, bucking so fiercely against Alex that, unless she wanted to skewer the Jarnock, she had to pull back her blade. She only did so a fraction, but Mareek took advantage of her wrestling distraction to draw his dart pipe.
Seeing his movement from the corner of her eye as she struggled to keep Taka contained, Alex cried out, “No!” but it was too late to stop him.
With another burst of speed, she leapt aside to avoid the dart’s trajectory, resulting in it pricking Taka’s chest instead. The Jarnock was out in seconds, causing Mareek to release an ear-splitting roar. But Alex was too focused on avoiding the multitudes of incoming darts now flying her way from every direction to worry about his fury.
She spun and twisted, jumped and sprinted away from the projectiles, but she knew the outcome was inevitable. Bear, she could see, was already sprawled unconscious on his side, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she joined him. She should have known they’d have no chance of fighting their way out, not with so many Jarnocks standing against them, and not when she was unwilling to hurt any of them. But after the words she’d heard from the chiefs… Alex couldn’t just sit by and wait to see what they’d meant. Now, however, she would have no other choice.
When Alex was finally pricked in her side, she had only seconds of conscious thought left as she started blacking out for the third time that afternoon. In that moment she realised that Hunter was right: the Jarnocks might not have much going for them in terms of evolution… but they certainly made up for it in numbers.