Chapter Thirteen

Maxim found Pyra standing at the entrance to the compound two nights later and approached him carefully. The massive Denynso warrior stared out past the throw of the flames from the torches positioned along the inside of the stone wall into the darkness of the desert beyond. They hadn’t heard the drums since the battle and around them the energy of the compound was beginning to lose its frenetic intensity as everyone began to settle, quieting as they gathered and conserved their energy for whatever was coming next.

“Pyra?”

Pyra looked over at Maxim.

“Yes, Maxim? Is something wrong?”

“No,” Maxim said quickly, wanting to diffuse the anxiety and temper that were still strong inside Pyra. “Everything’s fine. I just wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Pyra asked. “For what?”

“For what you did for my father. He told me about everything that you did to help him on Earth. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it all. You ensured that I got my father back.”

“You’re welcome, Maxim. I’m happy that we were able to bring him here to you.”

Though he was accepting Maxim’s thanks and genuinely did seem glad about the near-miraculous reunion that he had in part facilitated, Pyra’s face was drawn and there was concern in his voice.

“What is it, Pyra?” he asked. “Did you hear the drums?”

“No,” Pyra said. “It’s been silent since the battle.”

“Is it something else?”

Pyra looked out over the sand again.

“I’m worried about the people that we left behind in the ship. I think that we need to go back for them.”

Maxim felt confused. He shook his head slightly.

“I thought that your crew transferred the other injured and the pregnant women onto the bigger ship because they would be safer there. Don’t they have everything that they need to sustain them, at least for a while if not until we are able to head back to Uoria?”

“We originally brought them to the main ship because we thought that it would be safer for them to remain there rather than trying to transfer them across the planet, especially since we didn’t know where to find you. They have enough supplies to keep them going, but I don’t feel confident that they are safe any longer.”

“Why?” Maxim asked.

“Now that we’ve had a battle with the hybrids and I’ve seen what they are capable of and their ruthlessness, I feel like making that decision put them in serious danger. Leaving them in the ship out in the desert without any of the warriors or anyone to watch over them and help them if there is an ambush makes them far too vulnerable. Nearly all of those who are still there are already severely injured or pregnant. They aren’t able to take care of themselves or protect themselves as we would be. Though there are still some weapons aboard, they are far from prepared to fight. What would happen if the hybrids decided to try to invade the ship? They would have no way of keeping them out unless the pilot has activated the defense shields. Even then, there’s a chance that the hybrid army has access to weapons that could completely destroy the ship and everyone on it. We need to go back for them and bring them here to the compound where they will be safer. The injured have had enough opportunity to undergo more treatments so they should be stronger and better able to handle the journey. Once we get them here, Ciyrs, Elianna, and Eden can administer healings. They’ll be able to keep an eye on the pregnant women as well. There are some of them who should be delivering fairly soon.”

Maxim nodded.

“I think you’re right,” he said. “They will be safer if they are here with people who can help them. What if they refuse to come or are too afraid?”

“We’re just going to have to convince them,” Pyra said. “They have already gone through far more difficult and dangerous situations than this. If they can survive what Ryan put them through, then they can face crossing the desert. They will need as many of us with them as possible.”

“I’ll go with you,” Maxim agreed. “I’m sure that my father will as well.”

Pyra shook his head.

“No, Maxim,” he said. “Aegeus needs to stay here.”

“Why?” Pyra asked. “He got through the battle unscathed. I am more wounded than he is. He is whole and strong again. He’ll be able to help protect them.”

“Aegeus escaped from Ryan,” Pyra said. “After so many years, he was able to get out of Ryan’s control and has fought against the hybrids. The Valdicians are going to want to bring him back to Earth and present him to Ryan for whatever punishment he wants to administer. Aegeus is at far more risk than any of the rest of us, even the hybrids. They are dispensable. He knows that he can easily replace them. Not Aegeus. Even Ryan can’t replace Aegeus.”

“Because he doesn’t have other Mikana?” Maxim asked. “He doesn’t have all of the Klimnu DNA that he wants for his experiments and needs to recapture him so that he can transform him again?”

“No,” Pyra said. “Because he’s who he is. There is much about your father that you don’t know, Maxim. Ryan will do anything it takes to get his hands on him again.”

“How are we going to transfer them all?” Maxim asked. “Even without my father with us, we’re going to be targeted by the army. They’ve been quiet since the battle, but they aren’t going to stay that way. They are planning something. Crossing the desert will make all of us vulnerable and exposed, and we need to be as prepared as we can to get there and get back here to the compound.”

“You’re right,” Pyra said.

“About what?” Maxim asked.

“The hybrids. They’ve been quiet. They haven’t attacked in two days. They haven’t even warned with their drums. The battle affected them a lot more than they thought that it was going to. It wasn’t just us, though.”

“The Meldor,” Maxim said. “They fell apart when they saw the Meldor.”

“We should go talk to Severine. She knows more about that animal than any of us, and might be able to tell us why all of the hybrids reacted the way that they did.”

“We may be able to utilize the Meldor in some way during the transfer. It could help.”

Pyra nodded.

“We’ll talk to her in the morning,” he agreed. “Go get some sleep. Your guard shift is in a few hours.”

****

Severine looked out at the two men in surprise. They stood outside the door of the barn, looking at her hopefully, asking if they could come inside to talk to her about the Meldor. She didn’t know how to respond. Neither man had responded well to the animal when they saw it during the battle and in the times that they saw it in the compound since. Part of her worried that they were trying to gain access to it so that they could hurt it in some way, and she felt her defenses sparking as she searched their faces.

“Can we come in?” Maxim asked again.

Severine nodded and stepped back to allow the two men to come into the barn with her. They both paused when they realized that the Meldor was not in a stall, but roaming free within the building. It’s tremendous size seemed amplified by the constraints of the building, but it was peaceful and calm. In just the short time since she and Rilex had rescued the animal from its underground prison it had become accustomed to her and she could feel that they were forming a bond.

“What is it that I can do for the two of you?” Severine asked, keeping her body positioned purposely between the men and the Meldor.

Maxim and Pyra exchanged glances and then Maxim stepped slightly toward her.

“We need your help,” he said.

Severine was somewhat startled by the admission. It felt like a major step that these two men were coming to her asking for help and she felt empowered knowing that there was something that they felt she had to offer to the war. At the same time, she wished that Rilex was there with her. She still wasn’t accustomed to spending time with people without him and she felt unsure of herself as she faced Maxim and Pyra. She straightened her spine, trying to reassure herself that she could handle this one her own. As much as she was committed to sharing her life with Rilex, that didn’t mean that they would be together at every moment. There would be more and more times like this when she was on her own with others and she would need to be able to manage it comfortably.

“What can I do for you?” she asked.

“It is more what…that…can do,” Pyra said, gesturing behind her.

“The Meldor?” Severine said, part question, part insistence that he refer to the animal as what it was.

“Yes,” Maxim said. He looked at the animal and then back at Severine. “Do you know if it’s…” his voice trailed off.

“It’s male,” Severine said.

Maxim nodded.

“We think that he could be extremely helpful for us, but we don’t understand him the way that you do.”

“What do you want from him?” Severine asked suspiciously.

“We want to go back to the ship and bring the injured and the women back here to the compound so that they can be safer,” Pyra said. “We think that the Meldor could be helpful in that transition.”

“We all saw how the hybrids reacted to him when you rode him into battle,” Maxim said. “It was obvious that they were afraid of it. That could be instrumental in getting us across the desert to the ship and then back with the rest.”

“The Others,” Severine said, using the word that she had adopted for herself. “They are the Others. All of us who don’t fit into one of your species or who were used in the experiments are.”

The men nodded and she could see the respect in their eyes.

“Do you think that he could help?” Pyra asked.

“I think that having him with you could be helpful in keeping the hybrid army at bay, at least more than they would be if you just tried to go on your own.”

“I think that we should go tonight,” Pyra said. “If we go when they might be sleeping, they will be tired. Those who were in the battle might still be recovering from that.”

Severine shook her head.

“No,” she said. “That won’t matter. We should wait and go tomorrow morning.”

“Why?” Maxim asked.

“The hybrids don’t care about being tired. They have been trained to the point that they will literally fight until they die from exhaustion. No level of tiredness or recovery from a battle will keep them from fighting if that is what they are called to do. Being tired doesn’t have any meaning to them. Their fear of the Meldor, though, does.”

“I don’t understand,” Pyra said.

“I’ve never seen any of the hybrids react to anything the way that they did to this animal when they saw it.” She walked up to the side of the Meldor and gently patted his side. She had been working on his coat with a brush and many of the mats were gone, revealing just how thick and beautiful the fur really was. “In my training, the Meldor was something to be wary of, but not something to fear. They’ve been taught something about this animal that is terrifying them and causing them to break ranks and leave a battle, which is never something that they would do.”

“But why do you think that we should go during the day? Wouldn’t we be more concealed if we went at night?”

“You might be more concealed,” Severine said, “but so will the hybrid army. The Meldor will be most effective during the day. The hybrids have been taught that he will only come out in the dark, that he can’t tolerate the light. When I removed his collar, though, I ensured that he was able to go out in the light without any consequences. They hybrids now know that we have the Meldor and that it is out of the tunnels. They will expect it to be used. But they will expect that it will only come out at night. If they see you out with him during the day it will have a tremendous impact on them.”

“Why?” Maxim asked.

“The army has been trained since the time that they were old enough to understand anything around them to believe that things are the way that they are. Period. There is no deviation, there is no option. They live in a world where all they know is what Ryan and the Valdicians have told them, and they structure their entire existences around those realities. If they see the Meldor out during the day it will throw them completely off balance. They will be confused and not know what to think. Seeing that animal coming toward them out in the full light of the day will force them to recognize that everything is not necessarily as it seems or as they have been told, and that there are other options and other possibilities.”

“What will that do?” Pyra asked.

“It could do two things,” Severine told him. “It could snap them out of the fog of control that Ryan has them under and let them see that the life that they have is theirs and they can do with it as they please. Or it could make it so that they aren’t sure of anything any longer and don’t know what they are supposed to do next. Whichever way, it will buy you some time and make it easier for you to get to the ship or back here. The Meldor will also be extremely beneficial if any of those who are still on the ship are still too injured to handle the entirety of the journey. You can place them up on his back and he will be able to transport them safely.”

“Will you come along with us?” Maxim asked. “He seems to trust you and you’ll be able to guide him properly.”

Severine hesitated. She wasn’t sure if she could face the idea of crossing the desert without more of the warriors or other soldiers with her. The Meldor nudged her as if to reassure her and she nodded.

“Yes,” she said. “I’ll go with you.”

To be continued…