CHAPTER TEN

 

Madison was shaken from a deep sleep. She moaned in protest and tried to pull the blanket over her head, only to realize her “blanket” was Xar’s many arms, and they were all intent on rousing her.

“You must wake, my mate.” He sounded reluctant to disturb her, but he persisted, pulling her upright despite her weak protests.

“The search party is back.”

That had her instantly, terrifyingly awake. She leaped up, only avoiding falling over the side of the tree because Xar caught her when she wobbled alarmingly.

“Did they—?”

“They have Ava.”

Relief, beautiful, sweet relief washed through her.

“Madison, she is badly hurt.”

The relief winked out.

“Take me to her!”

Before she was even finished speaking, Xar had her in his arms and was bounding through the trees. There were cries of greeting, relief, and alarm. He leaped onto the main branch of the tree, pushing others of his clan aside so that she could see.

Sophi looked terrible. She was unconscious and bleeding from multiple gashes, including a particularly bad one on her thigh. She was bruised and had deep bites that looked to have been made by long, sharp teeth.

“Is she going to be OK?”

“We must get her to the healer, as well as the others.” Torox gently laid Sophi down. Rin immediately went to her side, touching her lightly, balancing her on the branch and allowing Torox to straighten and address the group.

“We must get the injured humans to the home trees as fast as we can without hurting them further. We still have some light. We will leave at once.”

The Xenshi clustered around the humans. Scarlett gasped frantically as the Xenshi Madison remembered was called Naxar lifted her. He quickly straightened her out, holding her at an angled, upright position.

“Torox, I need someone to help me with Scarlett. She is having trouble breathing and cannot be carried normally.”

Torox took a quick appraisal of the situation and gestured for one of the other Xenshi men to join Naxar in holding Scarlett. “Is everyone else ready?”

Rin was cradling Sophi gently. Kaylee and Sophi were fortunately both unconscious, but the Xenshi holding them were still exceedingly careful. The other humans looked hesitant about approaching the Xenshi. That wasn’t a problem for long.

Xenshi men made quick introductions before scooping up the women. Most looked embarrassed as they held hesitantly to the shoulders of the Xenshi who had them. Some were so exhausted they simply laid their heads down and closed their eyes.

“We will try to make the journey in two days.” Everyone nodded solemnly at Torox’s command. They set off slowly, carefully.

While traveling through the forest with Xar had once been thrilling, this was a nightmare. Madison couldn’t relish his touch when all she could hear was Scarlett gasping for breath. Naxar took great pains to keep her upright. She was passed along, her face white with pain.

Not long after they’d been traveling, Kaylee woke up. The slightest jolt was agony for her, but they could not travel without jolts. The Xenshi moved by jumping through trees. It was unavoidable.

More than once, snarling arguments broke out among the clan, arguing over going slower and causing the humans less pain, versus getting them to the healer as quickly as possible.

By the time they stopped for the night, everyone was tense and ready to snap. Madison chewed unhappily on the jooma fruit while Xar frowned down on her, insisting she ate. She’d tried to offer it to the others, but Xar had snatched it back and given the others that had them backing away fast.

Xenshi men quietly coaxed the injured and traumatized humans to eat and drink.

Nighttime was the worst. It was too dark for her to see, but Madison could hear most of the women crying. At some point, Sophi woke up and started screaming. They all tried to comfort her, but waking up in the dark in the grip of strangers, she was inconsolable for hours. No one got much rest, particularly when Kaylee’s moans of pain were added to the dismal mix.

Torox ordered a small fire on the ground for the purpose of making her a proper tea out of the pain-relieving leaves. Having seen just was waiting on the ground, Madison realized how dire the situation must be for him to order that, especially at night.

The morning came, and Madison felt even more tired than she had when she’d lain down to sleep.

Xar murmured to her that they hadn’t made as much distance as Torox had been hoping. The conditions of the humans were worsening, the strain of travel putting more distress on their bodies. Torox ordered that everyone was given a tea of pain leaves as strong as it could be made, and that they travel swiftly so as to reach the home trees that night.

To Madison’s surprise, it was Xar who broached the subject of the ship, just before they set off for the second day of travel.

“My mate wishes to see if it can be prepared.” She read distress in his eyes at the thought, but he continued. “Have you examined it?”

“Not thoroughly.” Many of the other women were hanging on Torox’s words. “We didn’t need to. The vriax stomped it flat on its way to Ava. Unless you can fly to the stars on it instead of in it, there is no hope of getting it working again.”

 

* * *

 

His eyes drawn to his mate, Xar waited for her reaction. As he expected, her eyes turned down in disappointment. One of the human women spoke up that she agreed with Torox’s assessment, having seen the squashed ship herself.

To his relief, not to mention surprise, disappointment was the worst of it. Madison wasn’t devastated or crushed. She gave him a brave smile.

He wondered if she was putting on a strong face for the others. “Do you want to go ahead, scout the route?”

She didn’t take the way out he offered. “That’s all right, let’s stay with them.”

Before he could question her further, Torox stood up to address the group. “Today will be hard, but by the end of it, we will be home, where we can care for the humans much better under Zazora’s guidance. Since there are so many injuries, she’ll need help.”

He turned to some of the less battered humans, those with only some bumps and bruises. “I know none of you have experience in healing, but if any of you think you will be able to help Zazora with cleaning wounds, bandaging and preparing salves, please let us know. Your help would be appreciated.”

Xar glanced at Madison. She was frowning. “What are you thinking, my mate?”

“I’m terrible with that kind of stuff. I don’t do well with sick or hurt people.”

“That is good because I would not want you from my side for days, even if it is to help Zazora.”

She still looked unsure. “I mean, I don’t want to dodge out of work. If she needs the help…”

Xar stopped her with a kiss. “Torox was merely asking if anyone has talents in that area. Since you don’t, and I don’t either, we will work on areas that suit our talents. Don’t worry. Zazora will have plenty of helpers. Rin often helps when she needs someone extra, and Torox isn’t a bad healing assistant either.”

“I do want to help, though…”

“You will,” he promised her. “Once they are healed, the other humans will also want to be able to get about themselves. While Zazora is caring for them, you and I can lead a group in making and placing ladders. We’ll need your advice on which spots humans will find difficult, and what kinds of safety precautions we can take so that you don’t fall or get hurt.”

Madison brightened considerably at this. “Ladders, I can do.”

“That, and we need to find some food you like to eat other than jooma fruit.” He forestalled her protests. “This will benefit the others too. If you don’t like our standard food, it is likely the other humans won’t either, since they’re from the same world as you with the same foods available.”

“Trust me, they’ll need to eat to keep up their strength, and people eat a lot better when there is something tasty to offer them.”

She frowned up at him. “Are you just trying to make me feel better about not helping Zazora?”

It was another of those confusing things his mate said. “You feel bad because your talents lie in one area and not another? Why is this?”

Madison just smiled and shook her head. She wound her arms around his neck. “Are we going, or what?”

As much as Xar would have liked to spend the day paying attention to his mate and her alone, the others needed help. One of the humans became hysterical when she saw through a break in the thick leaves how high they were. She thrashed wildly and had to be held down for her own safety.

Madison tried to explain to him about “phobias,” but he was a little distracted in his efforts not to have his eyes gouged out by her blunt little fingers.

Torox took control of the situation. “We do not have enough men to contain her and continue to travel with the others. Xar, I want you to go ahead and find some cavag roots. Those will calm her down.”

Xar bared his teeth at Torox. “I will not take my mate to the ground.”

“I’ll go, it’s fine,” Madison said quickly. “Just getting a few roots.”

“I will not—”

“Xar.” Torox fixed him with a stern gaze. “You are the only one not carrying an injured human. Your mate at least knows a bit about Xenshar now. You two will be the safest.”

He couldn’t argue that. Even the humans who were relatively uninjured clung clumsily to the men carrying them. They wouldn’t survive a trip down to the ground, not until they were more adept at traveling the jungle like his mate was.

“Fine.” He spun and started descending. He couldn’t even be angry at Torox, who had tirelessly taken on all the worst duties when the others got stressed or worried dealing with the helpless and hurt humans.

“Come on, it’ll be fun.” Madison’s voice was light and teasing. Even though he still wasn’t happy about taking her to the ground, it lifted his spirits. “So what are cavag roots?”

“They make a person very sleepy. She will be limp and happy once she’s taken them.”

Xar kept an ear above, listening to the clan’s progress. It wasn’t hard. The humans were noisy when they traveled.

“Are we going to see any more vriax?”

Though she hid it well, he could detect the tremble in Madison’s voice.

“Unlikely. This isn’t an area vriax normally travel. They tend to stick closer to water. Don’t worry though. Even if one does come for us, I’ll have us back in the trees before it gets close.”

Though she was still nervous, Madison focused and asked questions as he told her about the plants they were seeing. Zazora knew much more about what could be used in healing, but the cavag root was a basic substance that all Xenshi knew about.

He showed her how to use a stick to dig under the short, spiky bush and extract the thick upper portions of the roots.

“You see here? They’re woody near the top, with that springy feel. If you chew on it, you’ll likely be asleep, or at the very least lying down and yawning, before you can swallow.”

Despite the danger of vriax, their brief trip to the ground was rather more pleasant than traveling through the trees with the human women, who were all either in pain, terrified, or just numb. Rin and the others had taken care of them in that tree, but Xar reminded himself that they were lost in a strange world, hurt, confused, and worried for their companions. Still, he was quietly proud of Madison for how well she had adapted.

Since he and Madison were the swiftest pair, Xar took to scouting the route ahead, checking for any obstacles or predators. It wasn’t strictly necessary, but Madison breathed easier out away from the others, despite her worry for them dictating they returned to check on them often.

Xar made a show of moving aside branches and vines to make the trip easier. Any Xenshi could travel proficiently on their own, but with the humans along, it might make things a bit easier for them.

“Are we going to make it today?” Madison looked worriedly at the sky. The sun was sinking.

“We will. Torox has been pushing hard. No one is happy, but we will be home before day’s end. It’s going to be a long night. I want to take us ahead, to warn Zazora of our approach. She’ll be prepared, but she still might need to heat things up or chop some herbs that can’t keep long out in fresh air.”

Torox quickly approved the plan, and Madison spoke encouragingly to the humans, telling them they weren’t far away from help.

They swung through trees, Madison holding easily to his body. She moved with him now rather than being a dead weight. Xar suspected it wouldn’t be long before she could navigate the forest on her own. She was full of ideas, and her body’s ill-adaption to life in the trees wouldn’t hold her back for long.

As they moved, Xar finally asked her what he’d been wondering about since that morning. “My mate, why weren’t you more disappointed about the ship? I’m delighted you’re not, but I thought you would be devastated by the news.”

Madison paused for a long time before replying. “I guess I’ve realized that there could be worse things than being stuck on Xenshar. I think I could be happy here… with you.”

Xar had never heard such wonderful words.