Crystal Tomb (Starfire Angels: Dark Angel Chronicles Book 3) (20 page)

How lonely it must be.

She turned back to her people, who had
gathered in groups, while children played under the watchful eyes
of the men who cared for them. Many had been fortunate to grab
items from their homes.

She had nothing, except
Lantis.

Her son. Where was he?

Not with the families in the far
corner nor the children running and giggling to her right. Not with
the young girls unpacking storage boxes near the center.

A flash of light caught her attention
to her left. When it faded, yellow wings rose up amid a group of
children.

Lantis. Apparently he'd found a toy,
hopefully not something of the gentle Miru who had so generously
saved them.

Afraid of offending the creature, she
spread her wings and glided down to the boys, intending to return
whatever they had found. She landed near her son, who hurried to
hide behind his back whatever he held. A poor tactic and an obvious
sign that he knew he was in trouble.

["Lantis."]

The other children drifted away, their
wings tucked close to them in shame.

Golden eyes looked up
guiltily.

["Show me what you have."]

He hesitated but slowly pulled a glass
sphere around which bore a familiar bluish-green crystal. ["I'm
sorry. Lady Akarin told me to take it. I was careful. Really,
Momma. I didn't break it. It just glowed on its own."]

["Give it to me."] He could have
broken it. And the crystal was now all she had left of her
sister.

But glowing? It didn't seem to glow
for her. ["What did you do?"]

["Nothing."] Hmm. She knew that answer
too well. Nothing meant something.

["Show me, Lantis."]

He hesitated to reach up to touch the
sphere, but when he did, nothing happened.

["It just happened. I don't
know."]

He probably didn't know. But she knew
one thing—Akarin didn't want the Risaal getting their hands on the
little treasure. After seeing that brief glow from it, she could
understand why. Whatever created power in it was something the
Risaal were willing to destroy their world to obtain. Akarin had
given her life to be sure this didn't return to the original
owners, and she would honor her sister's last order.

Poor Lantis. She'd trained him well to
accept responsibility, no matter the consequences, but he'd done
nothing wrong.

["That's all right. I'll keep this for
now. Go play."]

He brightened and scampered after his
friends. Kids. Ah, to be young like that again and not understand
the true burdens of life, to live in the moment.

Unfortunately, she wasn't. She was
older and disliked change. They would live on a new world with new
opportunities, and she would bear the responsibility of leading her
people.

She hoped the Miru was right about the
new world.

["Lady."]

The deep, soft voice froze her on an
instant of fond memories of the past, when she had abandoned a
genetic match because her heart had left her for one special man.
He could not be there, not ever again; she'd seen him cast into the
sea after the poisoning death. Laron had died soon after his son's
birth and she had never learned who killed him.

But that voice touched a familiar
place where those feelings lingered.

Atia turned, expecting disappointment
at the rise of grief and her hands still clutching the sphere with
the crystal.

A male matching her height with deep
brown eyes which drew her into the depth of a yearning soul
hesitated. ["I…I'm sorry, Lady. I didn't realize—"] He fell to one
knee and dropped his face. ["Lady Mikael Atia. It is an
honor."]

The honor was hers, but the words
stuck in her throat out of propriety. ["Rise—"]

He obeyed, keeping those charming eyes
downcast. ["Darus. Garshivol Darus, Lady."]

His presence warmed the embers of what
she thought had grown cold and forlorn, but she could not show it
there. In private, perhaps, but not in the open, especially not
when her people needed stability in founding a new home.

["You may look on me, Darus."] She
needed to see what she might have imagined, even if she had been
wrong. The loss of Laron six years ago, and now their world, had
left her empty and alone. She had rejected any further attempts at
genetic mating out of course, allowing Akarin to inherit the
governance of the Inari Provincial Consortium.

When his eyes met hers, her heart
nearly stopped. The fear had softened from his face, leaving a
sense of peace in his expression which strengthened her. His gaze
never wavered, but she forgot the problems around them for those
seconds, imagining what might be.

The long silence grew into awkwardness
and she had to break away. Ahben depths. She hadn't felt such
stirrings since her last night with Laron. ["I'm sorry, Darus."]
She blinked, hoping to calm the fluttering of her heart, and pulled
her wings close, aware then that they'd risen with her emotions.
["What…Did you want something?"]

No man should have such power over a
woman. Yet the confidence with which he'd approached intrigued
her.

["Lady Atia, forgive my impudence,"]
he said more calmly. ["I had only seen you glide down and hoped you
bore news."]

["I do, but for all our people."] She
hesitated on a thought, catching her breath on a fear that should
not matter. ["You represent someone?"]

["No, Lady."]

Hope sprang within her and words
tangled in her head as they had that first time meeting Laron.
["You came alone?"]

["Yes, Lady. I was a loader for
several islands before being sent here."]

That explained the strong arms, but he
was bigger than most men already, perfect for the manual labor he'd
done and would do to help set up their new home. Most men were
weak, but Darus was different and possessed a calm confidence that
stole her heart.

No, she had to keep her
head.

["Your skills will be most useful
where we're going,"] she said.

["Where is that?"]

["A new world. The Miru are taking us
to a world where we will be safe but where we have to start
over."]

Disappointment and sorrow
dragged down his expression.
[No.
Don't.]
She didn't want to see it on
others, a reflection of her own grief. Her hand on his cheek was
automatic, as if consoling Lantis. She pulled back, startled that
she had so freely touched him.

But it had the effect she hoped—the
sparkle returned to his eyes. ["You will lead us well, Lady
Atia."]

Darus bowed his head, his wings lifted
slightly from his back in a relaxed carriage and he turned
away.

["Darus."] Her mouth worked before her
brain, guided by the loneliness inside. He halted and turned to
her, and her tongue refused to cooperate for a few seconds. ["Thank
you."] Ahben depths. That wasn't what she should have said, but it
was all that would come out.

His cheeks lifted in a warm smile
before he turned away, taking a part of her with him. There was
something special about this man. She would keep him in her sights,
and maybe he could feel the same for her in time.

First, she had duties to attend. She
was Lady Mikael Atia of the Inari, sole remaining heir to the
governance and her people's last hope for survival. She had a
colony to organize.

And organize she did. While the
announcement that they would start a new life caused much dissent,
the arrival at a world rich with life lifted the spirits of her
people.

By the time they arrived in orbit over
the new world a few days later, all supplies were packed up and
ready under Atia's direction. The Miru surprised them by taking the
large ship into the atmosphere, where they could fly and breathe.
They analyzed surveys of the land, which was green with plant life,
and a few dozen flew out for direct observations to report
back.

An uninhabited island in the northern
hemisphere a few miles from a peninsula attached to the largest
land mass seemed like their best option. There they could settle
in, set up their lives, and rebuild their society without
interfering in the ways of the local inhabitants until they were
ready.

In preparation for their new life,
they carried trunks and boxes and crates from the hold to the
nearest docking bay, where they loaded the shuttles.

Atia caught no glimpse of Darus
through the bustle and commotion, but grasped the hope that she
would see him again. With Lantis at her side and the crystal in her
hands, she boarded the shuttle and strapped in. She hadn't seen the
Miru again since their conversation but wished them—or it—well with
her appreciation. Since the creature could read thoughts, she could
only guess it knew how she felt.

Their shuttle followed the others from
the large vessel to the open air, where many families already flew
in the skies.

They would share the world
with the natives, the ones the Miru had referred to as
hassam
. Their host had
said these sentient creatures looked much like Inari but without
wings. Land bound Inari.

Her people would never live on land
for long. One day they would build a city in the sky, where they
belonged.

Through the ride down, she watched out
the windows with her son. Not until they skimmed low over the land
did she catch her breath. Peaks of land rose high into the sky,
some breaking through clouds, and long-legged animals raced from
their approach. And flying creatures! This world had feathered
creatures with wings.

Bless the Miru. They
had
chosen a good world
for them. She could rest at ease at the promise it
offered.

The scene faded, taking the sensations
of the seat harness pressing into her as the ship slowed and
leaving her alone in a tangle of memories circling her head. One
moment, she was Raea at school, laughing and joking with her human
friends; the next she was Atia organizing a new government and
directing the construction of temporary camps while meeting and
meeting and meeting with different individuals to assess their
skills and assign them work.

[It was a long process,
over a year on the new world.]

Raea startled. The thought hadn't been
hers but had rung clear through her head. ["Who are you?"] She knew
the voice, but she had to be sure it wasn't her.

[I am you. I was Mikael
Atia.]

Right. And she was Samantha Carter. As
if.

[I have been bound with
the ones you call the Starfire. They wish you to see and
understand…I had not wished anyone to know my shame, but now I
see…They're right.]

This couldn't be real.

But what was real anymore? In the last
two months she had learned she wasn't human like her schoolmates,
her pendant was a collective of entities with amazing powers tied
into her genetics and interdimensional travel was actually possible
because of them, and other worlds existed with intelligent life
unlike anything on Earth. Wicked cool, as Josh would say, but
frightening in the possibilities.

[This is real, Raea, and
you must return to the Risaal, to the memorial they
hold.]

She shuddered and blocked
her mind. ["No."] No more. Never again.
Wake up, Raea.
She wanted out of that
vision.

[You must learn. I will
not hold them back. I cannot, but they let me contact you. You must
go back and free the others…]

The voice faded and physical
sensations returned with life.

Atia's life.

Life Changes

"Raea! Raea! Wake
up!"
A worried voice disturbed the
contentment of a balmy day.
"Oh, God.
Please, Raea."

A cool breeze ruffled the skirt around
Atia's leggings where she stood on the balcony of what was becoming
the palace of their land-based city. Three years already in the
making, it would soon be finished. Those first few years on the
island had been dedicated to finding food to feed them and creating
shelter for all, especially through the first turbulent cold
season. The years were also longer on this world, so that the cold
season seemed interminable. Construction of the city proper had
been secondary to shelter and food for all.

Over the pinnacles of rising
fortresses of stone, crafted by those willing to learn under the
guidance of the engineers, flew a shuttle from the mainland
bringing more food harvested from their fields. They had studied
the lifecycles of many plants within the confinement of makeshift
laboratories. Using the knowledge gained, they started plots of the
most useful plants. Through the cycles of this world, several of
their kind had developed specialized knowledge of the native
plants.

The food had proven compatible for
them, despite the vast differences. From different parts of that
world, they had found various plants, some poisonous but many
nutritious and capable of supporting them, and many more bearing
medicinal properties.