Chapter 5
Exhaustion threatened to knock Cass off her feet. The only thing keeping her going was that she’d found herself in the middle of a desperate rescue and escape from a city about to be bombarded by snake people.
Only, the people that Nahash said were his strike team didn’t look like him at all, as she discovered when he led her and Fortak out of the building where Fortak had taken her after Lady Kiari told him to “punish” her.
Nahash’s people had glimmering dragonfly wings and wore armor that covered their entire bodies except for those fragile-looking wings, so she couldn’t see what they looked like, but they had two legs rather than a long, serpentine lower body like Nahash.
They didn’t seem happy to see Nahash with other people, and she wasn’t even certain Nahash was the one in charge of their team, but after they exchanged words out of earshot of her and Fortak,—who stood very still in the face of the rifle pointed at him—one of the winged people motioned for her and Fortak to follow them.
She turned to Nahash, who’d come up behind her, his upper body towering over her as he balanced on his tail. “We’re going to get the other women, right?”
Nahash glanced at Fortak. “They’re Iriduan?”
Fortak nodded once.
Nahash frowned deeply, the expression marring what was one of the most handsome male faces she’d ever seen in her life, even if—like the rest of his body—scales covered every inch of it. The man was beautiful from the waist up, though hard armor that covered him from his chin to the point where his tail began at his waist concealed most of his upper body.
“This Kiari is a criminal of the worst sort,” he said. “We’ll rescue the females and return them to their monasteries. Even the captain can’t complain about this delay.”
“Monasteries?” Cass hadn’t had much time to talk with the women about their lives, since she’d spent all the time before Kiari had entered the room trying to brainstorm escape plans.
“We don’t have time for questions, woman. We must move.”
She turned to rush after the winged soldiers running swiftly and silently down the alley following Fortak.
“Okay, but it’s Cass, not ‘woman’,” she said in a loud whisper over her shoulder, since Nahash insisted on being right behind her.
“Silence, woman. We’re in enemy territory,” Nahash said in a much softer whisper.
She nodded her understanding of their situation, realizing she would have to argue with him at a later time about how he addressed her. If they made it to later.
She knew she’d been lucky that Fortak had turned out to be in love with Cici. Kiari could have given her to another of the Urasol who would’ve actually carried out the “punishment” with relish. Kiari was a cold-blooded bitch with evil eyes and a grin that could freeze hot coals. It seemed like a crime of nature that she possessed the same level of beauty as the other Iriduan women. Someone that monstrous should look the part. If Kiari could, she would kill all of them, Nahash and his team included, if she caught them trying to take her slaves.
They wouldn’t be fighting only Kiari. The pirate queen had her band of criminally-minded Urasol just ready to tear them apart. Fortak had told Nahash and his team the numbers they’d be up against if they couldn’t sneak the females out silently.
When they reached the block of buildings across the street from where the scent peddler holed up, Fortak filled them in on the last part of his own plan—one he’d been plotting for some time now in order to rescue Cici and the other women. It involved the second bottle of liquor he’d picked up that night, and the sleeping drugs he now added to it.
He planned to hand out a round of drinks, and make sure everyone shared at least one cup. That left Kiari herself, and possibly one or two others who might refuse. They intended to take Kiari alive to stand trial for her crimes. The Urasol would be shown no mercy.
Nahash had objected to the plan because he felt it would take too long. Apparently, they were on a time crunch, though he’d reassured her that their people wouldn’t drop the bombs until he was off the planet. She tried not to think about all the other possible innocents in the city who weren’t going to be saved that night. It would be difficult for them to even rescue the six women they already planned on.
Cass insisted Fortak take her back inside to help reassure the women and lead them out, reasoning that they wouldn’t be inclined to trust an Urasol after what they’d been through. The only person who’d been okay with that suggestion had been Fortak, who’d told her he could carry her in over his shoulder while she pretended to be passed out after her “punishment.”
Nahash and the rest of his team threatened violent opposition to any plan that put her in danger.
“It’s not happening, woman,” Nahash growled in his deep, intimidating voice as he lowered his body until he could meet her eyes. “You’ll remain here with First Warrior Dolis. If there’s any problem with the extraction, he’ll take you immediately to the evacuation shuttle and back to the ship. Do I make myself clear?”
“If you and Fortak and your team are occupied fighting, who’s going to lead the women out of danger? They could be caught in the crossfire, or even used as shields by the pirates if they wander into the fighting. I can help them sneak past you all and get them to safety,” she pointed to the aforementioned first warrior, “and then Dolis can take us all to the shuttle.”
She thought it was a reasonable suggestion. She was scared, but she knew the other women would be terrified too, and they wouldn’t have the benefit of having spoken with these aliens as she had. They’d have to deal not only with their fear of Kiari and her bear-thugs, but also of a team of heavily armed and armored warriors, and a giant snake-man with an attitude problem. There would be no reason for them to trust Nahash and his men, any more than they’d trust Kiari.
In fact, Cass hadn’t seen much proof that she should trust them. She hadn’t been given much time to decide if they were actually friends, or just a new foe playing nice for the moment. She’d decided to trust Fortak once he’d managed to explain to her terrified, teary self that he meant her no harm and had fallen in love with Cici. He’d been planning her rescue for a few weeks, trying to pull together his plan under Kiari’s nose.
Cass knew they needed the help. Fortak hadn’t made his move before that night because he couldn’t find a ship to take him and the women off-planet without Kiari finding out about it. He’d only decided to put his plan in motion that night out of desperation, after finding an escape tunnel that led to the vast wilderness beyond the city. The jungle-like wilds beyond the colony provided a place where it would be easy to get lost, even from lifeform scanners.
Now they had an escape shuttle and uncertain allies. Fortak told her before he left to enter the building with the doctored liquor that the armored soldiers were Iriduans, like Cici and the others, though she hadn’t seen wings on the females. If anyone would want to save their women, it should be their new allies.
Nahash wore a mutinous expression, and she was amazed at how the tiny little scales that covered his facial skin allowed him to form such a deep and imposing frown that pulled back his firm, sculpted lips to reveal long, sharp, backwards-curving teeth.
“If you don’t behave,” he said to Cass, “Dolis will physically restrain you.”
His frown deepened, then he sent a glare in the other male’s direction as his tail curled towards Cass, twining far too close to her bare feet for her comfort.
She sidled away from it as Nahash eyed the first warrior. “On second thought, I’ll remain out here with you,” he said, eyeing the other male, whose expression she couldn’t see because it was hidden by his enclosed helmet.
The team leader walked up to them and lifted the visor on his helmet, revealing eyes the color of sapphires, surrounded by iridescent skin of the same color. His lower face remained firmly sealed by the breathing mask on his helmet, so Cass couldn’t see what the lower half of his face looked like, and his gaze barely touched on her before he met Nahash’s eyes, his own narrowed in what appeared to be anger.
“Do not try anything stupid,” he said, his voice transmitted through a speaker in his helmet.
He took several quick steps backwards when Nahash snapped his jaw open, stretching it too wide to be normal—revealing that rows of deadly teeth almost covered his entire upper palate. His lower two teeth rows cradled a long, forked tongue.
Nahash hissed at the other male. “You forget who I am. Do not question my honor.”
After that display, Cass decided it might be best to listen to Nahash, at least until he got the other women free. Then, they could get the heck out of there and hopefully, get away from the snake-man and all those teeth.
The leader lowered his visor, giving Nahash a precise nod as he took another step backwards before turning sharply on his heel. His wings flicked several times before falling still as he stalked away, motioning for the rest of the males to fall in behind him and Fortak.
After they crossed the street, sticking to the deepest shadows as they headed for the building where the other women were being held, Nahash turned his attention back to her.
Cass struggled not to cower away from him, her gaze avoiding his mouth as she tried not to think about all those teeth and that jaw stretching so wide.
“When I receive word that they’re on their way out of the building with the women, we leave for the escape tunnel Fortak told us about,” he said in a low tone. “Don’t hesitate, and don’t argue with me. I will carry you the entire way, if I must. Do you understand, woman?”
“I thought we were going to your shuttle.” She certainly didn’t want him to carry her. Or touch her at all. At the moment, she felt more fear of him than of Kiari and her thugs.
A bitter expression deepened his frown before he shook his head. “The women will be safely removed from this world and returned to the comfort of their monasteries, until their harems can be found or replaced. You will not be among them.”
He lifted a hand and ran his clawed fingers over his scaled head in obvious agitation. Then he expelled a heavy sigh.
“Nor will I.” He treated her to a fierce glare. “This is all your fault, woman. I had honor once, but you’ve changed everything. I can’t allow the empire to dictate your future.”
Cass held up both hands. “Whoa! What the heck did I do?”
“Silence, wom—Casss,” he spoke her name with a spine-chilling hiss. “Your voice will draw attention we don’t need.”
He swept his gaze from one side of the street to the other. She didn’t know how well his serpentine eyes—with their yellow irises and elongated black pupils—could see in the poor lighting provided by sparse streetlights of floating spheres hovering above pyramid shaped bases that lined the cracked and broken pavement.
She couldn’t see anyone around the buildings, and she didn’t think the abandoned look of the neighborhood was just fortunate for them. She had a feeling Kiari kept the other pirates away with threats of violence. Urasol guards patrolled closer to the building, but Fortak should be taking care of those patrols right now, and none of them came to this side of the street.
“Do you think they have some kind of electronic scanners to detect us hiding out here?”
He glanced down at her with a slight tilt of his lips. “Not anymore.”
She wondered at the certainty in his tone. Perhaps he and his men had somehow disabled the scanners, but she had no idea when. They all had futuristic armor, and she assumed some kind of computer somewhere on their bodies, but they hadn’t done anything with them that she’d seen.
Of course, she’d been preoccupied trying to sneak through a pirate city without being spotted, though it hadn’t been as difficult as she might have expected. Most of the ruined city appeared to be abandoned. Those parts that they’d passed through that thrived were filled with drunken revelers or brawlers. Occasionally, she’d been guided past an alien body lying still in the gutters or in the dark alleys. She didn’t want to know if they were still breathing or not.
Now, she wanted to ask questions to fill the weighted silence that fell between them, but knew he’d probably just tell her to shut up again. Instead, the many pressing questions she had about everything chased each other inside her head, where occasionally she would pluck one out to examine closely and try to guess her own answers to it based on what little she already knew. She always failed at this exercise, but it kept her mind busy and distracted from her insane situation.
Several times during their interminable wait, Nahash would tilt his head, hissing or muttering in a very low voice. She thought he was talking to someone else, and wondered how.
Whatever he said, she didn’t catch, but his expression grew more and more forbidding as the time stretched without word from Fortak and Nahash’s team.
Cass hadn’t been wearing a watch when she’d been abducted, but she doubted it would be accurate in this place, even if Kiari had allowed her to keep it on. Still, she wished she could tell exactly how much time had passed, or that Nahash would give her some indication of whether things were going right—or terribly wrong.
She hated waiting. She was a doer. Whenever there was a task at hand, she was always the first to roll up her sleeves and get to work. She couldn’t handle waiting nearly as well as she could action. Even back home, she’d always have something to do while she waited. At the very least, she’d have a book to read or a phone app to play around with. Here, she only had the scenery to study, and while it fascinated in its own dilapidated way, it wasn’t enough to distract her from the mostly silent alien creature beside her or the danger she and the other women had been plunged into.
When Nahash suddenly turned to her, uncoiling his tail at the same time, she jumped at his sudden movement, backing several steps away from him.
“We go, now. Don’t hesitate. Don’t look back. Your friends will be safe, but you won’t be if they catch you.”
He motioned for her to move to his side. At her slightest hesitation—which she thought reasonable given her situation—he curled his lip, revealing a more terrifying reason to hesitate.
Then his tail snaked around her, coiling, and tightening as he lifted her off the ground.
“It isn’t easy to move like this,” he hissed, his irritation plain to see, even through the haze of her fear.
Despite his words, he managed rapid progress through the alley in the direction of the escape tunnel, using the part of his tail that wasn’t holding Cass to undulate through the filthy streets.
When Cass looked behind them, she saw that he’d left behind a clear trail in the gunk and debris, and wondered if he expected them to be followed.
She also wondered why he intended to leave his own team behind, which was yet another question she hadn’t been able to ask during their wait.
She didn’t know why he’d been with the Iriduans, since he hadn’t seemed to like them, and apparently didn’t fully trust them. Now he escaping them—with her in tow—but she didn’t know if he was helping her, or abducting her again. Cass feared that she’d leapt blindly out of the frying pan and directly into the flames.