Chapter Two
Creia paced back and forth across the entrance gate to the Mikana kingdom. He felt like he had been walking there for hours, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. Mina had received communication from Nylek informing her that they were on their way from Penthos, and while it was a relief and a comfort to know that they were coming, she had said that his voice was weak. The Denynso king knew that this meant that the warrior was injured, and he was worried about what they had endured already.
“They will be here when they get here,” Theia said as she approached, holding out a cup toward Creia. “You are going to exhaust yourself. Remember, you are not fully recovered yet.”
“I want to be here when they arrive,” Creia said. “I need to see them.” He took the cup from his mate and took a long sip of the sweet nectar. “Thank you,” he said, leaning down to give Theia a kiss.
She swept the sides of her robes around her, shuddering against some chill that Creia didn’t feel. Seeing her reaction, though, brought his attention even harder to the horizon. The empathetic skills of his mate were unparalleled. Though she didn’t have the same abilities as Loralia, allowing her to know what they were feeling and experiencing their emotions as if they were her own, Theia was able to sense the energy of those around her, especially when they were at their extremes. The chill that she was feeling now was likely the pain and intensity that the group was feeling now as they approached. Finally, he saw dark figures in the distance. They moved as an amorphous unit, sometimes appearing to be one and other moments separating so that Creia was able to identify the individual figures.
The numbers that he saw didn’t make sense. There weren’t enough of them. There should have been far more with them. Creia felt the wind whipping across his face before he realized that he was running. There should have been pain as his feet hit the ground and his body pushed harder than it had since before his imprisonment, but there was nothing. The intensity of the worry that coursed through him was enough to mask anything that he might experience. He might suffer later, but for now he had to get to them. He needed to know what was happening.
As he approached he saw that the group was working together to carry two of the men. One was Nylek, the other Kyven. He scanned the faces of the others in the group, but didn’t see Maxim, Oro, Jonah, or many of the others that he expected would be with them.
“Creia!” Ivy shouted as they drew closer.
“Ivy,” Creia said, reaching for the human woman. “What’s happening? Where is everyone?”
Ivy shook her head. She appeared drawn and breathless, and Creia was immediately even more worried about Maxim and the others.
“We are the only ones who are here,” she told him. “The others are still on Penthos, and on Earth.”
“On Earth?” Creia asked, horrified by the revelation. “They didn’t make it to you?”
Ivy shook her head again.
“No,” she said. “Oro, Jonah, Azrael, and Ariella used the vehicle that Jonah and Rain designed to get to Earth to assist the ones that Ryan had captive there, but they haven’t returned. Maxim, Zyyr, and the others are still on Penthos. They have been able to keep the hybrid army back, but the conflict will only get worse. They need all the help that they can get. They need the army and weapons from here.”
“We need to get these men to the clinic,” Rain said, gesturing to the two men being carried. “Is Rey in the kingdom?”
“Yes,” Creia said, “he’s there, so are the doctors. What has happened to these men?”
“Nylek was attacked by a group of hybrids. Kyven was injured by a creature who lives under the ground on Penthos. We’ve done everything that we can to treat them, but they are still weak. They need more food, water, and treatment. We brought them back here so that they would be in less danger. This is Elon,” Rain said, gesturing to the unfamiliar man in the group. “He is a human medic. He was on the shuttle when we were traveling toward Earth. He’s been helping take care of the men.”
Creia could hear tension in Rain’s voice, but he didn’t question her. For now, they needed to get the men to the Mikana clinic. He reached forward and swept Nylek into his arms, freeing the smaller man from the burden of trying to support the massive warrior. They started back toward the kingdom as fast as they could and as they approached, Creia called out to Theia.
“Get the doctors,” he called. “Tell them to get to the clinic. These men need help.”
They rushed through the gate and into the kingdom, heading directly toward the clinic that rested in the center. He carefully lowered Nylek to one of the beds and turned to watch them help Kyven into place. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Athan back out of the clinic and start running toward the homes at the back of the kingdom. The Denynso king backed away as the doctors came into the room and headed for the two wounded men, then turned to Ivy.
“How is Maxim?” he asked.
Ivy nodded.
“He’s well,” she said. “He’s gotten through the battles without serious injury.”
“That’s good to hear. I am surprised to see you here instead of with him there.”
Ivy looked down, her eyes brimming with tears.
“He sent me here,” she said. “He wants to keep me safe.”
He knew that there was more to it than just that Maxim didn’t want her on the dangerous planet. She had already been engaged in battle with them. He knew that she was capable of taking care of herself, or could at the very least remain out of the way. Maxim needed her like the Denynso needed their mates, and Creia couldn’t imagine him sending her away without a good reason. Before he could ask anything else, she looked back up at him, her eyes suddenly clear and stern.
“Did you gather all of the supplies that he asked you to?” she asked.
Creia nodded.
“Most of them,” he said. “We brought the vehicles from the orchard and have some supplies from the Denynso compound. Ellora hasn’t given us permission yet to go into the war room to get the weapons that Maxim described. She doesn’t want to even talk to us. It’s like she’s trying to ignore that the war is even happening.”
“She can’t do that,” Ivy said. “Maxim needs those weapons. We aren’t going to be able to get through this with just the supplies that they have. Even when the others arrive from Earth, there aren’t going to be enough weapons or rations to support them. She can’t just not allow them to get what we need.”
“I can do as I please.”
Creia saw Ivy whip around to face Ellora where she stood at the door to the clinic. The woman looked angry and drawn, but there was a sadness in her eyes that was impossible to ignore.
“Ellora,” Ivy said, taking a step toward her.
“Where is my son?” she asked.
Creia stepped out of the way so that she could see Kyven lying on the bed further into the clinic. She immediately pushed past him, rushing to the side of the bed and leaning over her son. She took his head and reached forward to touch the side of his face.
“Kyven,” she said softly. “It’s Mama. I’m here.”
Kyven’s eyes opened and smiled at his mother.
“I’m alright,” he said. “I’m healing. It wasn’t serious.”
“It was serious,” Emerie said from the other side of the bed. “The Meldor nearly killed you, and we don’t know what kind of toxins it had on its claws. That’s why Maxim sent you back here.”
“I should be there with him,” he said. “I should be fighting alongside him, not lying in this bed.”
“You can’t be there with him,” Emerie said. “You aren’t in any condition to be fighting. You need to recover, and when you do, you can be of good use to him.”
“Listen to her, son,” Ellora said sternly. “She’s right. You might want to be with your brother and I’m sure that he wants you to be with him, but if you are injured, there’s no way that you are going to be able to give him the support that he needs. You will be in more danger and you will put the rest of them in danger as well. If you stay here and focus on recuperating, you will be strong enough to fight, though I wish that you wouldn’t.”
“Why?” Kyven asked, shifting as if trying to sit up. “Why shouldn’t I fight?” Emerie touched her hand to his shoulder and laid her mate back down onto the bed, but Kyven kept staring at his mother intently. “It’s like you don’t want us to win,” he said. “You don’t care what’s happening to all of us.”
“I do care, Kyven,” Ellora said, “but I have already lived so much of my life suffering the loss of my husband. I don’t want to lose you and your brother as well. All of this has happened before. There has been struggling and fighting for your entire life, and there will continue to be in all parts of the galaxy, in all parts of the universe throughout the rest of time. You don’t have to be a part of it.”
“There will be fighting,” Creia said, stepping forward, “but it won’t be like this. There is so much more happening than has ever happened before. There is so much more than any of us have ever known. This isn’t a grudge, Ellora. This isn’t something that we are fighting just for the sake of fighting.”
“How do you know that?” she asked. “You just came here. I have never seen you before now. How am I to know that I can trust what you have to say about this war? We were peaceful until your kind showed up here. We hadn’t seen war since the battle when Aegeus died. Then your warriors came here and suddenly everything has fallen apart around us.”
“Don’t talk to him that way,” Kyven said. “This is not Creia’s fault. He didn’t cause this. If it hadn’t been for the Denynso, we never would have learned what we have. We wouldn’t have found out the extent of what’s happening, and things would be much worse very soon. Besides, Papa…”
Athan stepped up to the side of the bed with a sound that silenced Kyven.
“You should rest now,” he said. “The doctors will take care of you and Emerie will bring you something to eat soon. Ellora, you should go back home for now. They need good food and drinks to restore their strength.”
Creia saw Ellora look down at her son with questions in her eyes. It was obvious that she knew he had more to say and he waited for her to ask, but she didn’t. She straightened slowly, releasing Kyven’s hand as she went, and then looked at Athan and nodded.
“Alright,” she said. She lifted her eyes to Emerie. “Come to my house later and get food for these men.”
“I will,” Emerie said.
Creia watched as Athan carefully place a hand in the of Ellora’s back and guided her away from the clinic. He turned back to Kyven and looked down at him.
“What were you going to say about your father?” he asked.
“He’s still alive,” Kyven said. “He didn’t die in that battle.”
“Are you sure?” Creia asked.
Kyven nodded.
“Ryan told us himself. At least until then, he was still alive.”
“He’s been holding him all these years?” the king asked.
“Yes,” Kyven said. “They captured him during that battle and he has had him since. I can’t imagine what he’s been doing to him.”
“I can,” Creia said, his mind immediately flashing back to the horrific time that he had spent captive by the Valdicians, his very thoughts controlled by Ryan as he was forced to stare into the screen attached to his head for hours at a time. Starved and tortured, he had barely lived, and he had been held only a brief time. “Did he say that he would keep him alive?” he asked.
Kyven shook his head.
“No,” he said. “He wants me and Maxim, though. Maybe if we’re able to keep fighting and can resist him, that will keep him alive.”
“If he wants you and Maxim, Aegeus isn’t safe. He knows where you are and that he can get to you. That’s enough to make it no longer necessary for him to keep your father around. If he decides that Aegeus has become too much trouble, or that he doesn’t need him anymore, or even just that he wants to be as vindictive as possible, he will kill your father without a second thought. We need to get to him as quickly as we can if we want to keep him alive.”
“The group needs rest for tonight,” Kyven said. “We can’t simply go back.”
“I know,” Creia said. “There is still preparation to be done, but now that you are all here, you can help. We’ll do everything that we can to gather what we’ll need, and then we’ll go back. We can only hope that Maxim will be able to hold them off on his own until we get back, or that the rest of the group will make it to Penthos in time to help him. This has to end.”
He started toward the door to the clinic and heard Kyven call after him.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“I need to go talk to Ellora,” he said. “Maxim gave instructions for what we needed to do to get ready for this war. I remember fighting alongside your father when we were young. I know the importance of the weapons that he collected. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t know that something was going to happen, if he didn’t have a plan already in motion. She needs to let us access to war room.”
“No,” Kyven said. “Don’t.”
“Why not?” Creia asked. “We don’t have time to wait for her to decide that she is going to accept what’s happening. We can’t give the power of the future of the galaxy to her and her denials.”
“I know,” Kyven said, “but she won’t listen to you. Let Athan talk to her. She doesn’t trust anyone like she trusts Athan. Give him time. Do whatever else you can to get everyone ready, but let him talk to her.”
“Alright,” Creia said, “but I can’t just give them endless time. We have to prepare. We have to get to them.”
He turned and left the clinic, walking out into the growing evening with too much energy and anticipation to even think about sleeping. There had to be something else that he could do. Until they were on the ship heading back to Penthos, he wouldn’t be able to allow himself to stop or to rest.